lombriz

Forms

lombriz f (plural lombrices)^[1] Old Spanish wrote lonbriz or lombriz, plural lombrizes or lonbrizes.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish lonbriz, inherited from Vulgar Latin lumbrix (“worm”), an alteration of classical lumbrīcus (“earthworm, intestinal worm”).^[2][4][5] Corominas explains the new form by the great frequency of the plural of the classical word, and finds the altered form in the Mulomedicina Chironis and in Latin glossaries.^[2] García de Diego doubts that a nominative plural could have survived in the Latin of Spain.^[6] Wiktionary starts from an accusative *lumbrīcem.^[1]

The classical word, without the change, gave Portuguese lombriga, Asturian llombriga, Catalan llambric, Occitan lombric, Old French lombri, Italian lombrico and Romanian limbric.^[2][7] Forms like the Spanish one return only in dialects of northern Italy, such as Piedmont and Bergamo.^[2][7] The feminine gender is new in Spanish: the Latin word is masculine.^[2][8]

The origin of the classical word is unclear.^[9] Walde and Hofmann linked it with lumbus (“loin”), but de Vaan objects that such a root would have given a different form in Latin, and that Latin has no productive suffix of this shape; the ending recalls umbilīcus (“navel”) and formīca (“ant”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (1220–1250) already uses it, with the feminine assured by the rhyme: tu cevas las lonbrizes que yazen soterradas “you feed the worms that lie buried”.^[2][3] The sense is the earthworm.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the 13th century on the word named both the earthworm and the worms that breed inside the body: the Moamín of 1250 warns that some meats give hawks lombrizes and grubs, and Alfonso X's Lapidario has a stone that keeps a man safe from them.^[3][10] Nebrija kept the two apart in 1495, with lombriz de estómago for the intestinal worm.^[11][12]

Covarrubias in 1611 noted the comparison of a very thin woman with a lombriz, and Moliner still lists “very thin person” as a sense.^[13][14] The Academy's dictionary of 1899 introduced the zoological definition of an annelid that helps to make the topsoil, which the DLE keeps;^[15][5] lombriz intestinal and lombriz solitaria “tapeworm” are the parasites.^[15][5] In Guatemala lombriz can mean a craving.^[16]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos, the first record.^[4][2]
• 1250 – the Moamín uses it for worms in the bodies of hunting birds.^[3]
• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria names the mole and the worm as unclean animals that live under the earth.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija separates lombriz de estómago from lombriz in general.^[11]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the comparison of a very thin woman with a worm.^[13]
• 1734 – the derivative lombriguera is first recorded.^[4]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin lumbricus.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. An earthworm: a soft, ringed annelid that lives in damp soil and helps to form the topsoil: Al cavar el huerto salieron varias lombrices.^[5][14][1]
2. (usually in the plural) An intestinal worm, a parasitic nematode (lombriz intestinal).^[5][14]
3. (figurative) A very thin person.^[14][13]
4. (Guatemala) A craving, a whim.^[16]

Word family

• lombriguera

Related words

• lambrija
• Latin lumbricus
• Portuguese lombriga

Usage notes

Lombriz solitaria is the tenia or tapeworm.^[5] The Spanish word lambrija, for a worm or a very thin person, may share the root: Meyer-Lübke derived it from Vulgar Latin *lumbricula, but Corominas thinks this uncertain and weighs a link with alambre.^[2][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 690
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lombriz
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lombriz
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. lombriz
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3976
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5158
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lumbrīcus
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 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. lombriz
11. ^ a b 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. lombriz
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 372
13. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1092
14. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lombriz
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 609
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. lombriz
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. lombriz
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 651