máquina

Forms

máquina f (plural máquinas)^[1] Fifteenth- and sixteenth-century texts spell it máchina.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin machina (“machine, contrivance; scaffolding; stratagem”), which is from Ancient Greek μαχανά (mākhanā́), the Doric form of Attic μηχανή (mēkhanḗ, “ingenious device, machine, trick”).^[4][5][1] The Latin word is a very early loan, as the reduction of its unstressed /a/ to /i/ shows.^[1] The Greek noun is traditionally derived from μῆχος (mêkhos, “means, remedy”) and a root Proto-Indo-European *megʰ- (“to be able”).^[1][6] Beekes takes it instead for a Pre-Greek word.^[1]

Corominas found it fairly common in the 15th and 16th centuries but missing from Nebrija and Palencia.^[4] He thought that a loan of the 16th century would probably have come from Italian, where the word was then widespread.^[4] The CDH and DICCA-XV take it back to Enrique de Villena in 1423, in the form ⟨máchina⟩.^[2][7] Juan de Mena stressed the word differently, which el Pinciano and others criticised.^[4]

The learned word is also Italian macchina, French machine and Portuguese máquina.^[8] Popular outcomes survive elsewhere, such as Italian macina (“millstone”).^[8] In Spanish the Latin sense “scaffolding” lives on in mechinal “putlog hole”, through Mozarabic.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Villena's Arte cisoria (1423) uses it of the frame of the world: era la mundial e sensible máchina començada e nueva “the worldly and sensible machine was begun and new”.^[2] In his glosses on the Aeneid (1427–1428, in a copy of 1442) the Trojans were not to suspect that the wooden horse was alguna máchina ho artefiçio guerrero “some machine or engine of war”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The phrase máchina del mundo, the fabric of the universe, is common in 15th-century writers: Santillana, Diego de Valera.^[2] In the Golden Age the word also meant war engines and theatre machinery, and figuratively a great quantity, as máquina de necedades in the Quijote “a heap of follies”.^[4] The Academy's dictionary of 1843 defines it as a device for mechanical work and adds a great building, an abundance and an imaginary scheme.^[11] In 1869 it adds the supernatural machinery of epic poetry.^[12] The edition of 1899 has the modern definition, a device to use, direct or regulate a force.^[13]

With the railway it came to mean the locomotive, in Spain and in Chile.^[14][5] In Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Bolivia it is the car, and in Chile a minibus or a fraudulent company.^[15][16][17] In colloquial Spanish of Spain a máquina is also a person who is outstanding at something.^[1]

Timeline

• 1423 – Enrique de Villena, Arte cisoria: la mundial e sensible máchina.^[2][7]
• 1427–1428 – Villena's Aeneid glosses: a machine of war.^[2]
• 1444 – the date Segura Munguía and the DTME give for the first record.^[18][19]
• 1550 – the first record from the Americas, in La Paz: arcabuces ni otras máquinas.^[3]
• 1570 – Cristóbal de las Casas renders Italian machina as maquina o ingenio.^[4]
• 1600 – maquinista is first recorded.^[4]
• 1605 – the verb maquinar in the Quijote.^[4]
• 1708 – maquinaria is first recorded.^[4]
• 1843 – the Academy defines the mechanical and figurative senses.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology and the modern definition.^[13]
• 1921 – la máquina for a car in a Puerto Rican novel.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A machine: a device for using, directing or regulating a force, or a set of apparatus that converts energy or produces an effect.^[5][1]
2. A whole made of parts ordered among themselves, such as the universe.^[5][20]
3. A locomotive.^[5]
4. Stage machinery, tramoya.^[5]
5. A scheme or project of pure imagination.^[5]
6. (colloquial) A large, sumptuous building.^[5]
7. (colloquial, rare) A great quantity.^[5]
8. (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bolivia) A car.^[5][15]
9. (Chile) A minibus; a company set up to swindle its clients.^[15]
10. (Spain, colloquial, masculine or feminine) A person who is outstanding at something.^[1]
11. (obsolete) The intervention of the marvellous or supernatural in a poem.^[5]

Word family

• maquinaria
• maquinista
• maquinal
• maquinismo

Related words

• maquinar
• mecánico
• mechinal
• Latin machina
• French machine

Usage notes

A toda máquina means “at full speed, very fast”.^[18] Compounds such as máquina de vapor “steam engine”, máquina de coser “sewing machine” and máquina de escribir “typewriter” name particular machines.^[5][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. máquina
3. ^ 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. máchina
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 837
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. máquina
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 443
7. ^ 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. máquina
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5305
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 438
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. machina
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 460
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 490
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 635
14. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 432
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. máquina
16. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 351
17. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. máquina 1
18. ^ a b 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. 391
19. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. máquina
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. máquina