malva

Forms

malva f (plural malvas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin malva (“mallow”).^[2][3][1][4]

The same Latin word is Portuguese malva, Galician malva, Catalan malva, Occitan malva, French mauve, Italian malva and Romanian nalbă.^[5][1] Majorcan has the metathesised Catalan vauma, and it passed into Basque malma.^[6][7]

De Vaan considers the Latin word probably a borrowing from a Mediterranean language, perhaps Semitic, and compares Biblical Hebrew מַלּוּחַ (mallūaḥ), the name of a plant; the word Ancient Greek μαλάχη (malákhē, “mallow”), with its varying vowels, points the same way.^[8][1] Malaquita “malachite” goes back to the Greek word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates malva to 1098.^[2] The earliest uses the CDH has for the plant itself are in the falconry treatise Moamín (1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century), which gives hawks malua campesina, wild mallow, in pieces of meat, and in Alfonso X's Lapidario, where a stone is drunk ground in water in which maluas have been boiled.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Mallow was a medicinal herb: Covarrubias (1611) explains its name from a Greek verb meaning “to soften”, because it eases the bowels, and Autoridades (1726–1739) distinguishes a garden and a wild kind, both of use in medicine.^[11][12] Autoridades also records haber nacido en las malvas, “to be of humble birth”.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 adds the proverb ni de malva buen vencejo, meaning that good effects are not to be expected from bad causes, and malva real or rósea, the hollyhock.^[13] Alemany (1917) records ser como una malva, “to be gentle and docile”.^[14]

The dictionaries up to 1917 give only the plant.^[15][14] The DRAE of 2001 and the DLE add the colour, a pale purple tinged with pink like that of the flower, as an adjective and a masculine noun.^[16][3] Today criar malvas means “to be dead and buried”.^[3][17] In the Americas the name passed to native plants: in the Caribbean and Venezuela to several wild plants, and in Panama and Chile malva is also a marshmallow sweet.^[18][19]

Timeline

• 1098 – first record according to Corominas.^[2]
• 1228 – a sale charter names a valley Val de maluas.^[9]
• 1250 – the Moamín prescribes malua campesina for hawks.^[9][10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: malva ierva conocida, Latin malua, and malvar “a place of mallows”.^[20][2]
• 1516 – mallow seeds are listed in Puerto Rico.^[21]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the name from a Greek verb “to soften”.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades records haber nacido en las malvas.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy records malva real and the proverb ni de malva buen vencejo.^[13]
• 1917 – Alemany records ser como una malva.^[14]
• 2001 – the Academy's dictionary has the colour sense.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. mallow: a plant of the mallow family (malváceas), with a rough branching stem, lobed toothed leaves and purple flowers, much used in medicine for the mucilage of its leaves and flowers.^[3][1][17]
2. (masculine) mauve, a pale purple tinged with pink, like the mallow flower: Prefiero el malva al lila.^[3][1]
3. (figurative) A docile, gentle person, especially after a scolding: Después de la bronca se quedó como una malva.^[17][22]
4. (Panama, Chile) A marshmallow sweet.^[18]

Adjective

1. Mauve, of the colour of the mallow flower; usually invariable in the plural: unas cortinas malva.^[3][1][22]

Word family

• malváceo
• malvar
• malvavisco
• malvarrosa

Related words

• Latin malva
• French mauve

Usage notes

Malva real, malva rósea or malva loca is the hollyhock;^[3] criar malvas is “to be dead and buried”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. malva
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. malva
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. malva
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4080
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 401
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. malva
10. ^ 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. malva
11. ^ 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. 1105
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 467
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 546
14. ^ a b c Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1072
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 625
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. malva
17. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. malva
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. malva
19. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 241
20. ^ 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. malva
21. ^ 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. malva
22. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. malva