lienzo

Forms

lienzo m (plural lienzos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote lienço with a voiceless sibilant; early forms include lentio (904), lenzo (918) and lienço (980).^[2] Medieval texts also have lyenço, lenço and linzo.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lienço, inherited from Latin linteum (“linen cloth”).^[2][4][5][1] The diphthong /je/ is hard to explain, since Latin had a short /i/ in that syllable.^[2][1] Meyer-Lübke posited Vulgar Latin *lenteum, influenced by lentus (“flexible”).^[2] Jud doubted it, because Old Logudorese and Old High German forms point to the classical vowel.^[2] The form with ⟨e⟩ does occur in a Latin inscription that is hard to date, in some Latin–Greek glossaries and, as Wartburg noted, in a 1st-century periplus written in Greek, though Corominas suspects this last spelling is an arbitrary Hellenisation.^[2] He also allows a metathesis of an unrecorded semi-learned form, and leaves the question open.^[2] Nascentes derives Portuguese lenço from the same Vulgar Latin form.^[6]

The same word is Galician lenzo, Asturian llenzu and Catalan llenç, and survives in some Italian dialects; the Latin diminutive linteolum survives throughout western Romance.^[2][7]

The Latin noun is the neuter of linteus (“made of linen”), from līnum (“flax, linen”).^[1][8][9] De Vaan finds the adjective surprising beside līneus and suggests that it was built on an unrecorded noun for linen; the word for flax itself is cognate with Ancient Greek λίνον (línon, “flax, linen”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from the form lentio in a Leonese charter of 904, followed by lenzo in 918 and lienço in a Santander charter of 980.^[2][4] The first literary hit in the CDH is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), with the ten lienços de lino torçudo “curtains of twisted linen” of the Tabernacle; the Fuero de Cáceres (c. 1234–1275) taxes lienzo “linen cloth” at four dineros.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has been in common use since the Middle Ages.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as cloth of flax or hemp, coarse or fine, for shirts and sheets, and also as a square of linen for wiping the nose and sweat.^[11] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 adds a painting on canvas, a stretch of wall running straight between bastions or towers, and the façade or wall of a building.^[12] Moliner notes that it was once the general name for any white or brown cotton cloth and was used like paño for any piece of cloth, as in lienzo de altar.^[13]

In the Americas, the cloth is recorded in Puerto Rico from 1512.^[14] In Mexico lienzo or lienzo charro is the enclosure for lassoing and horsemanship, and in Cuba and Puerto Rico the space between the posts of a fence.^{[15][16][17][18]} In Argentina the plural means trousers, and in Chile it names a banner hung in a public place.^[18]

Timeline

• 904 – lentio in a Leonese charter: Corominas's first record.^[2][4]
• 918 – lenzo in another Leonese charter.^[2]
• 934 – lienzos in a charter of the cartulary of San Millán de la Cogolla.^[3]
• 980 – lienço in a Santander charter.^[2]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) has the linen curtains of the Tabernacle.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives lienço, paño de lino as Latin lintheum, and records lencero.^[19][4]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the sense “handkerchief”.^[11]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the painting on canvas and the stretch of wall.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. linen; a cloth woven from flax, hemp or cotton.^[5][1]
2. canvas prepared for painting.^[5][1]
3. A painting on canvas: El museo ha adquirido dos lienzos del siglo XVII.^[5][1]
4. The façade of a building, or a stretch of wall running from one side to the other.^[5]
5. A handkerchief of linen or cotton.^[5]
6. (military) A straight stretch of curtain wall between two bastions or towers.^[5]
7. (Mexico) An enclosure for lassoing and other feats of horsemanship (lienzo charro).^[18][15]
8. (Argentina, in the plural) trousers.^[18]
9. (Chile) A banner hung in a public place.^[18]

Word family

• lencero
• lenzal
• lencería
• lienza

Related words

• lenzuelo
• lino
• Latin linteum
• Portuguese lenço

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 646
3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lienzo
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lienzo
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. lienzo
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. lenço
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3903
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 423
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lienzo
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 402
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 439
13. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lienzo
14. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. lienzo
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 663
16. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica, p. 123
17. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 233
18. ^ a b c d e Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lienzo
19. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. lienzo