luciérnaga

Forms

luciérnaga f (plural luciérnagas)^[1] The oldest form is luziérnega (1251); luciérnega is found about 1400 and in 1554, and is still used in Argentina, Colombia and other American countries, while Spain says luciérnaga, the form of Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary and of Autoridades.^[2] Murcian has reluzángana and reluzángano, and Old Spanish also had a masculine luciérnago.^[3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Old Spanish luziérnega, which is from Latin lucerna (“oil lamp”) with a suffix.^[2][4][1] The DLE and Wiktionary explain the ending as a dialectal unstressed suffix -aga, of pre-Roman origin, which also accounts for the stress on the antepenultimate syllable.^[5][1] García de Diego starts instead from the diminutive lucernula (“little lamp”), while citing Menéndez Pidal's view that the base is the plain Latin noun with the same suffix.^[3]

The same Latin word names the insect in Catalan lluerna in some Catalan dialects and in Portuguese luzerna, and is the source of Occitan luzerno “glow-worm”; the plant name French luzerne “lucerne, alfalfa” was taken from this Occitan word, after the shining seeds.^[6][2][7] The Asturian word is lluciérnaga.^[8] Spanish took lucerna again from Latin as a learned word in the second quarter of the 15th century.^[2]

The Latin noun is formed from lūceō (“to shine”) with the suffix seen in lanterna.^[9][1] The root is *leuk- (“light”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is luziérnega in the Calila e Dimna of 1251 (in a copy of about 1400), in the title of a fable of the monkeys, the firefly and the bird.^[2][11] The falconry treatise Moamín has luzerniegas, ground with saltpetre into a medicine for hawks.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija's 1492 grammar lists luziérnaga among the words stressed on the antepenultimate syllable, and his dictionaries give it as the Spanish for Latin nitedula, noctiluca, cicindela and lampyris.^[11][13] In the Americas the chroniclers compared the native fireflies with it: Las Casas says the Indians called them cocuyos while Castile called them luciérnagas, and Molina's Nahuatl vocabulary of 1571 glosses copitl with it.^[11][14]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 described the insect in detail, under the name Lampyris noctiluca; its 1899 edition first gave the etymology, De lucerna.^[15][16] Other names are gusano de luz, candelilla and noctiluca.^[17] In El Salvador luciérnaga is also used figuratively for a lamp.^[18]

Timeline

• 1251 – luziérnega in the Calila e Dimna (in a copy of about 1400).^[2][11]
• 1250–1300 – the Moamín has the plural luzerniegas.^[12]
• c. 1400 – the form luciérnega in the Glosario del Escorial.^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's grammar cites luziérnaga as a proparoxytone.^[11]
• c. 1495 – the BDELC's date for the modern form, from Nebrija's dictionary.^[4]
• 1571 – the first record from the Americas, in Molina's Nahuatl vocabulary, Mexico City.^[14]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from lucerna.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A firefly or glow-worm: a beetle (coleóptero) about a centimetre long whose brownish-yellow male is winged, and whose wingless, wormlike female gives off a phosphorescent light.^[5][1][17]
2. (El Salvador, figurative) A lamp.^[18]

Related words

• lucerna
• luz
• lucir
• lucero
• Catalan lluerna

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 718
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 3956
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luz
5. ^ a b 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. luciérnaga
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5137
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. luzerna
8. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. lluciérnaga
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. lucerna
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. luciérnaga
12. ^ 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. luciérnaga
13. ^ 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. luciérnaga
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. luciérnaga
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 535
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 611
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
18. ^ 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. luciérnaga