madera

Forms

madera f (plural maderas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish madera, inherited from Latin māteria (“wood of a tree; timber; material, matter”).^[2][3][1] In Latin the word was the timber for building, as against lignum, the wood for burning.^[4] It is formed from māter (“mother”): the trunk was the “mother” that put out shoots, and the word passed from the hard part of the tree to building timber and to any material.^[5][4][6] The sense “matter” in philosophy was modelled by Cicero on Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood, matter”).^[1]

Lanchetas traces the change from the Latin word through *mateira and *madeira, the form that Portuguese madeira keeps, to the modern form.^[7] The same word is Galician madeira, Asturian madera and maiere (“wood”), while French matière and Italian materia are learned.^[8][9][1] Spanish took the learned doublet materia from the same Latin word in 1220–1250.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DEMel lists madera in a charter of the bishopric of Burgos of 1075 and in a Navarrese one of 1092.^[10] The CDH's earliest hit is La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy): Bezalel made the ark of the covenant „de madera de cedros”, “of cedar wood”.^[11] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) speaks of an outsider found „taiando madera”, “cutting wood”.^[11] Berceo uses it both for timber, „Buscó buena madera”, and for any material: a thing made of glass „non de otra madera”.^[7][11]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose madera is the solid part of the tree and also a worked piece of wood.^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 calls every tree cut from its trunk madera, because it is the material for many things, and records madera for unripe fruit; the island of Madeira, he says, was named by the Portuguese for its plentiful timber.^[13] Autoridades has the phrases madera del aire “horn of an animal”, descubrir la madera “to show one's hidden fault” and no holgar la madera “to work without rest”.^[14] The Academy added in 1817 the horny matter of a horse's hoof, and ser de mala madera “to shirk work”.^[15]

Today the word also means natural talent for something, tener madera de, the woodwind section of an orchestra and a wooden golf club.^[3][16] Moliner records the slang sense “the Spanish national police”, from the colour of its old uniform.^[17] In New Mexico madera is a lie or flattery.^[18]

Timeline

• 1075 – madera in a charter of the bishopric of Burgos.^[10]
• 1143 – the derivative madero.^[2]
• c. 1200 – madera de cedros in La fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's date for the word.^[2]
• c. 1230 – Berceo uses it for timber and for material.^[7][11]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of painting on wood.^[12]
• 1438 – the derivative enmaderar.^[2]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin materia and tignus.^[19]
• 1517 – the first record in the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “timber”.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the word from materia.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense for a horse's hoof.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin materia.^[22]

Meanings

Noun

1. wood: the solid part of trees, under the bark.^[3][1]
2. A piece of worked wood used in carpentry; a plank, board.^[3][1]
3. The horny substance of a horse's hoof.^[3]
4. (colloquial) Natural talent or aptitude for an activity: Esa chica tiene madera de actriz.^[3][1]
5. (golf) A wood, a club with a wooden head for long shots.^[3]
6. (music) The woodwind instruments of an orchestra.^[3]
7. (slang, Spain) The national police.^[17]

Word family

• madero
• maderable
• maderero
• maderamen
• enmaderar
• amaderado
• almadreña
• tocar madera

Related words

• lignario
• materia
• material
• madre
• Portuguese madeira

Usage notes

Tocar madera “to touch wood” is said to ward off misfortune.^[23][1] Vox also lists madera as a variant of madeira, Madeira wine.^[24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. madera
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. madera
4. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. madera
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. māteria
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. matière
7. ^ a b c Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 454
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. materies
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. materia
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. madera
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. madera
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. madera
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. 1, 1100
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 448
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 540
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. madera 1
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. madera
18. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 122
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 375
20. ^ 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. madera
21. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 166
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 660
23. ^ 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. 411
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. madera 2