lino

Forms

lino m (plural linos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin līnum (“flax; linen”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls it a word in general use at every period and common to all the Romance languages.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese linho, Galician liño, Asturian llinu, Catalan lli, Occitan lin, French lin, Italian lino and Romanian in.^[5][6][2]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *līnom and compares Ancient Greek λίνον (línon, “flax, linen”) and Lithuanian linas (“flax”).^[7][1] Because Latin varies between a stem in -no- and one in -nto-, and Greek and Balto-Slavic have a short vowel, he finds no common Proto-Indo-European form and thinks the word was probably borrowed from another language as the name of the plant.^[7] Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *līnom as likely, beside Proto-Germanic *līną.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1112 in Oelschläger's list, and the derivative linar “flax field” is older still, in a charter of 1060.^[2][3] The Fuero de Madrid (1141–1235, in a copy of the early 13th century) fixes the wage for weaving trapo de lino “linen cloth”.^[8][9] Berceo uses the flax in a proverb-like line: El lino cabel fuego malo es de guardar “flax next to the fire is hard to keep safe”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word named the plant, its fibre and the cloth made from it.^[2][11] Covarrubias (1611) describes how flax is pulled, soaked, dried, beaten and combed, leaving estopa, and how the threads are woven into linen for shirts and sheets.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) adds the cloth by synecdoche and, mostly in poetry, the sails of a ship, quoting Lope de Vega's encarcelando el viento en pardo lino.^[13]

Corominas notes that linar is very frequent in place names.^[2] In Argentina lino also names the seed, called linaza in Spain, and in Cuba and Puerto Rico a green plant floating on fresh water.^[14][15]

Timeline

• 1060 – a charter has the derivative linar.^[2][3]
• 1112 – the first record of lino, in a charter.^[2][3]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) lists lyno among offerings.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario names linen beside wool and cotton.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin linum;^[16][3] linaza is first recorded.^[16][3]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the working of flax.^[12]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the poetic sense “sail”.^[13]
• 1899 – the compound linóleo, from the English word, enters the Academy's dictionary.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. flax, an annual herbaceous plant with blue flowers, whose stem gives a textile fibre.^[4][1]
2. The textile fibre taken from the stem of the flax.^[4]
3. linen, cloth made of this fibre: Llevaba una camisa de lino blanco.^[4][1]
4. (poetic) The sail (vela) of a ship.^[4][13]
5. (Argentina, Puerto Rico) Linseed (linaza).^[14][15]

Word family

• linar
• linaza
• linero
• linón
• lináceo

Related words

• lienzo
• línea
• liña
• linóleo
• Latin līnum
• Portuguese linho

Usage notes

Lino bayal is a variety sown in autumn, with a long stem and the finest, whitest fibre;^[4] lino caliente is sown in spring and gives more fibre of lower quality.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 663
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lino
4. ^ 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. lino
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3904
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. lino
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. lino
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. lino
11. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. lino
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1088
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 413
14. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 187
15. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 280
16. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 372
17. ^ 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. lino