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lonja

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word lonja

lonja1 slice, strip

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1250 Moamín, Libro de los animales que cazan
Borrowed from
French longe
Ultimate origin
Latin longus

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlonxa/, [ˈlõŋ.xa][1]

Forms

lonja f (plural lonjas)[1]

Etymology

The word for a slice or strip is borrowed from French longe (“strap, tether; loin”).[2][3][4][1] In the sense of a strap, frequent in Old French from the 12th century for the falconer's leash and other tethers, the French word is the old feminine of long (“long”), from Latin longus: what mattered about the strap was its length.[2][3][5] The sense of a slice of meat is less certain.[2] Corominas thinks it probably grew out of the same adjective, through a long cut of pork, but notes that the frequent medieval sense “loins” points rather to Vulgar Latin *lumbea, from lumbus (“loin”).[2][3] Diez and Gamillscheg proposed this Vulgar Latin form for the French word, and García de Diego, the DHLF and Bénaben accept it.[6][7][8]

Its inherited doublet is the feminine of luengo.[1] Juan Vallés in 1556 still equated „luengas o lonjas” for the falcon's leash.[2] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dlongʰos (“long”), and is cognate with the English word long.[9][1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Moamín (1250, in a later 13th-century copy) explains how the lonjas, the leashes of hunting birds, should be made: neither too short nor too long.[11][12] Corominas's first record is Juan Manuel's Libro de la caza (c. 1325), with the strap that ties the falcon to its perch.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

López de Ayala (1386) uses the falconry term too, once in the form longa.[2][11] The sense “slice” may already be in Juan Ruiz (about 1330), whose amarga lonja rhymes with lisonja and monja, and it is certain from Nebrija.[2][3] Covarrubias in 1611 defines lonja as anything long and narrow, como lonja de tocino.[13] Autoridades adds the strip of leather by which the swingletrees of a coach were fastened.[2]

In the River Plate lonja is a strip of cowhide, usually cleaned of hair, and lonjear is to cut hide into strips.[2][14] In Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua it is a roll of fat at the waist.[15][16]

Timeline

  • 1250 – the Moamín uses lonjas for falcons' leashes.[11]
  • c. 1325 – Juan Manuel's Libro de la caza, the DCECH's first record.[2]
  • c. 1330 – Juan Ruiz's amarga lonja, perhaps the first “slice”.[2]
  • 1546 – in Santo Domingo, fat taken from sea lions is compared to lonjas of pork.[17]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records lonja de tocino.[13]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives this lonja from the Latin word for “long”; in 1899 it derives it from loncha.[18][19]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A slice, a broad thin piece cut from something, especially of ham or bacon: una lonja de queso.[4][1]
  2. In horse carriages, a leather strap fastening the swingletrees.[4]
  3. (falconry) The long leash tied to a falcon's jesses.[4]
  4. (Argentina, Uruguay) A strip of hairless cowhide or horsehide.[16][14]
  5. (Mexico, Central America) A roll of fat; a beer belly.[15][1]

lonja2 exchange, market

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing
First attested
1439–1445 Pero Tafur
Borrowed from
Catalan llonja
Ultimate origin
Frankish *laubja

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlonxa/, [ˈlõŋ.xa][1]

Forms

lonja f (plural lonjas)[1]

Etymology

The word for an exchange is borrowed from Catalan llonja, the Valencian and Majorcan form of llotja, from Old French loge (“arbour; hut; small room”), from Frankish *laubja (“arbour, gallery, hall”).[20][21][4][1] The Frankish word is probably derived from *laub (“leaf”), and the DLE compares Old High German louppea.[20][21][4] Only in French is the word a direct Germanicism, since only there is the development of the Frankish form into the French one regular.[20] The Catalan word and Italian loggia are old borrowings from French.[20]

The ⟨n⟩ of the Valencian form belongs to that dialect, which also says rellonge for rellotge (“clock”).[20][22] Jaume Roig rhymes it with monja in 1460.[20] The sense of a house of trade appears first in Catalonia, and the oldest Italian record of it, of 1400, refers to Barcelona.[20] Portuguese loja (“shop”) is the same word.[20][23] Spanish took logia later from the Italian word, and alojar from Catalan allotjar.[21]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pero Tafur, writing in 1439–1445, uses lonja for the shop of a banker or money changer.[20]

Semantic evolution

The sense “merchants' exchange” is in a document of 1490, and Nebrija gives lonja de mercaderes as Latin emporium.[20][21] Corominas notes that in Castilian the word was long applied mostly to the famous exchange buildings of the cities of the Crown of Aragon.[20] Autoridades adds a shop selling cocoa, sugar and spices (from the Persiles) and the raised forecourt of a church, recorded from 1600, and explains the word, wrongly, from Latin longus because such buildings are long.[20][24] The Academy's 1884 dictionary derived it from Italian loggia.[18]

Today the word mostly names the wholesale market, above all the fish market of a port where the catch is auctioned.[4][25] In the Canaries it is a storeroom or the lower part of a house, a grocery or a fishmonger's, senses partly taken from Portuguese loja.[26][27]

Timeline

  • 1439–1445 – Pero Tafur, the first record, in the sense “shop”.[20]
  • 1490 – a document has lonja “merchants' exchange”.[20][21]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives lonja de mercaderes.[20]
  • 1526 – lonjas “shops, storerooms” in the Canaries, at Tenerife.[27]
  • 1547 – first record in the Americas, corredor de lonja in Mexico.[17]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades records the exchange, the shop and the church forecourt.[24]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A public building where merchants meet to trade, an exchange; especially the fish market of a port, where the catch is auctioned.[4][1]
  2. A raised forecourt in front of a church or other building.[4]
  3. In sheep-shearing houses, the storeroom where the wool was piled.[4]
  4. (dated) A shop selling cocoa, sugar and other goods.[4]
  • loncha
  • luengo
  • logia
  • alojar
  • French longe
  • Catalan llotja
  • Portuguese loja

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 692
  3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lonja I
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. lonja
  5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. lonja
  6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lumbea
  7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. longe
  8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. lonja
  9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. longus
  11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. lonja
  12. ^ 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. lonja
  13. ^ 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. 1093
  14. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 511
  15. ^ 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. lonja
  16. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. lonja
  17. ^ 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. lonja
  18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 652
  19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 610
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 694
  21. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lonja II
  22. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 208
  23. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2064
  24. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 432
  25. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lonja
  26. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. lonja
  27. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. lonja

Related etymologies

  • máscara · also from Catalan
  • rol · also from Catalan
  • borde · also from Catalan
  • presa · also from Catalan
  • talla · also from Catalan
  • pila · also from Catalan
  • gafa · also from Catalan
  • guante · also from Catalan
Cite this entry

“Lonja.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/lonja. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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