luna

Forms

luna f (plural lunas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish luna, inherited from Latin lūna (“moon”).^[2][3][4][1] The word has the same form in every period of the language and is common to all the Romance languages.^[2] Its cognates include Portuguese lua, Galician lúa, Asturian lluna, Catalan lluna, Occitan luna, French lune, Italian luna, Sardinian lúna and Romanian lună.^[5][6][1] Portuguese and Galician lost the /n/ between vowels, while Catalan and Asturian have the palatal /ʎ/ at the start.^[5][1]

The Latin word goes back to *louksnā; an inscription from Praeneste still has losna.^[7] De Vaan derives it from a Proto-Indo-European adjective meaning “shiny, bright”, probably an epithet of the moon, built on the base of lūx (“light”) and lūmen.^[7] Wiktionary gives the form *lówksneh₂, from the root *lewk- (“light, bright”).^[1] De Vaan lists Ancient Greek λύχνος (lúkhnos, “lamp”) among the cognates.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word from the earliest texts of the language, the 10th-century Glosas Silenses and the Cantar de mio Cid.^[2][3] In the Cid, Jimena's prayer praises God, who made the stars and the moon: fezist estrellas e luna, e el sol pora escalentar “you made the stars and the moon, and the sun to give warmth”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish texts mostly name the moon beside the sun and the stars, as Berceo does: Fijo, que más alumnas que el sol ni la luna “Son, who give more light than the sun or the moon”.^[8][10] Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it in astrological prose.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 called the moon the lowest of the seven planets and noted that the poets gave it three names: Luna in the sky, Diana on earth and Proserpina in the underworld.^[12]

The Autoridades (1734) added two senses that are still current: in alchemy the moon stands for silver, and luna is also a sheet of plate glass, either the glass of a mirror or the lens of spectacles.^[13] The Academy's 1884 dictionary records the moon's supposed effect on the insane, an Aragonese sense “open courtyard”, and the slang senses “shirt” and “shield” of the old germanía.^[14] Hidalgo had already listed luna “shirt” in 1609.^[15] Today the word also means the glass of a car window or a shop window, the satellite of any planet, and, short for pez luna, the sunfish.^[4][1]

In the Canaries and in several countries of the Caribbean and Central America luna means menstruation; the Canarian dictionary suspects the influence of popular Portuguese lua.^[16][17] In Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, the Río de la Plata and El Salvador it can mean a bad mood.^[17][4]

Timeline

• 950–1000 – the Glosas Silenses.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid (in a 14th-century copy).^[8][2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[11]
• c. 1295 – first record of the derivative lunes “Monday”.^[3][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as a planet of the sky, Latin luna.^[18]
• 1515 – the first record from the Americas, on the Tierra Firme coast, where a chief counts time in moons.^[19]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's thieves' slang uses luna for a shirt.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls the moon the lowest of the seven planets.^[12]
• 1734 – the Autoridades adds the senses “silver” and “mirror glass”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the Aragonese sense “courtyard”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The moon: the only natural satellite of the Earth.^[4][1]
2. The part of the Moon's surface that can be seen from the Earth; the light of the Moon at night.^[4]
3. A lunation, a lunar month.^[4]
4. (astronomy) A natural satellite of any planet: Marte tiene dos lunas pequeñas.^[4]
5. A large mirror; a sheet of glass for windows, shop windows or windscreens; the glass of a pair of spectacles.^[4][1]
6. The sunfish, short for pez luna.^[4][1]
7. The supposed effect of the Moon on some people;^[17] (colloquial, Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, Uruguay) a bad mood.^[4][17]
8. (alchemy) silver.^[4][13]
9. (Aragon) An open courtyard.^[4][14]
10. (Canaries, El Salvador, Dominican Republic) Menstruation.^[16][17]
11. (germanía) A shirt.^[4][15]

Word family

• lunación
• lunar
• lunático
• lunes
• alunizar
• luneta
• lunarejo

Related words

• Latin lūna
• lúnula
• Portuguese lua
• Catalan lluna

Usage notes

Luna de miel “honeymoon” is probably a translation of the English word honeymoon.^[20] The day name lunes comes from Latin dies lunis, a variant of dies lunae “day of the Moon” altered after dies martis and the other day names.^[2][3] As the name of the Earth's satellite the word is often written with a capital, la Luna.^[4][1]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 712
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luna
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. luna
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. luna
6. ^ Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ a b c 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 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. luna
9. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. luna
10. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. s.v. luna
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. luna
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. 1094
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, 439
14. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 654
15. ^ a b c Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 185
16. ^ 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. luna
17. ^ 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. luna
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 373
19. ^ 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. luna
20. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. luna