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luz

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word luz

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1200 Almerich, La fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin lux
Ultimate origin
Proto-Indo-European *lewk-
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin lūx
Italian luce
Spanish luz
From the same root
Latin antelucanus ← lūx
Latin lūcifer ← lūx
Latin lūculentus ← lūx

Pronunciation

  • /ˈluθ/, [ˈluθ], /ˈlus/[1]

Forms

luz f (plural luces)[1] Old Spanish texts write luz, lus and once each lux, alus and aluç.[2] Asturian has lluz, with the initial /ʎ/ of that language.[3]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin lūx (“light”), genitive ⟨lūcis⟩.[4][5][6][1] The word has had the same form since the earliest Old Spanish texts.[4][2]

Corominas notes that it is common to the Romance languages except Romanian and French, though it soon became old-fashioned in Occitan and Catalan.[4] The outcomes include Portuguese luz, Galician luz, Asturian lluz, Aragonese luz, Old Catalan luts, Occitan lutz, Italian luce and Dalmatian loik.[7][1]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *louks, from Proto-Indo-European *léwks, and is related to Ancient Greek λευκός (leukós, “white, bright”) and to the English word light.[1][8] De Vaan derives the whole family from the root *lewk- (“light”).[9] Latin also had lūmen, which Bénaben describes as rather a means of lighting, the source of Spanish lumbre.[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in Almerich's Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in a passage on the day of the Lord: En es dia non sera luz “on that day there will be no light”.[11][2] Corominas dates the word from the earliest texts and names Berceo; the Breve diccionario gives 1220–1250.[4][5] In Berceo's Sacrificio de la misa Christ comes en esta luz mesquina, “into this wretched world”, the word standing for the world of the living.[11]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already uses luz for the light of the sun and of lamps, for the glitter of a gem, and for spiritual light or faith.[12] Covarrubias in 1611 records luzes for the candles lit at nightfall, entre dos luzes for twilight and dar luz de algún negocio “to give news of a matter”.[13] Autoridades adds the sense “day”, from a 17th-century historian.[14]

The phrases for bringing to light and publishing (dar a luz, sacar a luz, salir a luz) are in the Academy's dictionary of 1817.[15] Dar a luz also means “to give birth”;[16][5] Baralt in 1855 condemned ver la luz “to be born” as a needless Gallicism.[16][5] The 1884 edition separated the flame, the lamp or candle, figurative enlightenment, the guiding person and the architectural senses.[17] Today the word also means the electric current and, in anatomy, the inside of a tube or hollow organ.[6][18][1]

In Latin America luz is popular slang for money in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Bolivia, and a rural word for a ghost or will-o'-the-wisp in Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic.[19] The sense “money” is also old Spanish thieves' slang and Andalusian.[20][21]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has luz in a 13th-century copy.[11]
  • 1220–1250 – the Breve diccionario's date of first record (Berceo).[5][4]
  • 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the light of fire and the glitter of stones.[12]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin lux and splendor as its equivalents.[22]
  • 1562 – first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.[23]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records entre dos luzes “at twilight”.[13]
  • 1817 – the Academy lists sacar a luz and salir a luz.[15]
  • 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology, “Del lat. lux, lucis”.[17]

Meanings

Noun

  1. light: the physical agent that makes objects visible.[6][1]
  2. The brightness given off by something that burns or glows.[6]
  3. The electric current supplied to a house: Mañana nos cortan la luz.[6][1]
  4. A lamp, candle or other device for giving light.[6][24]
  5. (anatomy, engineering) The lumen, the inside of the cross-section of a tube or duct.[6][18][1]
  6. (figurative) A person or thing that serves as a model and guide.[6]
  7. Day, daytime.[6][24]
  8. (architecture, usually in the plural) A window or other opening that lets light into a building.[6]
  9. (architecture) The inside width of an opening or room; the span between the supports of an arch or beam.[6][1]
  10. (physics) An electromagnetic wave in the visible spectrum.[6]
  11. (painting) The point from which the scene in a picture is lit.[6][24]
  12. (colloquial, rare) Money.[6][19]
  13. (in the plural) Intelligence, clearness of mind.[6][1]

Word family

  • aluzar
  • contraluz
  • trasluz
  • lucecita
  • lucerna
  • lúcido
  • luciérnaga
  • lucífero
  • lucir
  • lumínico
  • lucero
  • lucubrar
  • lumbre
  • Latin lux
  • Portuguese luz

Usage notes

Dar a luz means “to give birth”, a todas luces “clearly, by any reckoning”, and entre dos luces “at twilight”.[25][26][1] The Academy also lists a second luz, an obsolete name of the hake, from Latin lucius “pike”;[27][28] DICCA-XV records it from 1460 and takes it from Catalan lluç.[27][28]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. luz
  3. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. lluz
  4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 718
  5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luz
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. luz
  7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  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. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. luz
  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. luz
  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. luz
  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. 1095
  14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. luz
  15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 537
  16. ^ a b Baralt, Rafael María (1855), Diccionario de galicismos, Madrid: Imprenta de J. Cruzado, p. 412
  17. ^ 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. 655
  18. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. luz
  19. ^ 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. luz
  20. ^ Salillas, Rafael (1896), El delincuente español: el lenguaje, Madrid: Victoriano Suárez, p. s.v. luz
  21. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 367
  22. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 373
  23. ^ 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. luz
  24. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luz
  25. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 388
  26. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 475
  27. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. luz
  28. ^ 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. luz

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Luz.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/luz. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

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