marrubio

Forms

marrubio m (plural marrubios)^[1] Old Spanish marruvio (so still in Nebrija and Covarrubias); regional manrubio in Murcia and the Canaries, and marrubillo in the Canaries.^[2][3][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish marruvio, inherited from Latin marrubium (“horehound”).^[6][7][1][4] The same Latin word is Portuguese marroyo, Catalan malrubí and Italian marrobbio;^[8][1][4] the Catalan form was changed under the influence of mal (“bad”).^[9] Basque borrowed the word as Basque marrubi, which there means “strawberry”.^[4][10]

The OLD calls the Latin plant name of unknown origin.^[11] Wiktionary suggests that its first part is the Semitic word for “bitter”, as in Arabic مر (murr), since horehound is a bitter plant.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is in the Libro de los caballos (c. 1275, known from a 14th-century manuscript), in a remedy for horses: los assensios amargos & el marruvio ventoso & la farina del trigo “bitter wormwood and windy horehound and wheat flour”.^[2][12] The Libro de los azores (c. 1300) prescribes the crushed herb against lice in goshawks.^[2] The BDELC dates the first record 1399.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija glosses marruvio as a well-known herb, and Covarrubias refers the reader to Dioscorides and Laguna.^[3][13] The Autoridades describes it growing on dunghills and ruined buildings, very useful in medicine, and quotes Laguna's remark that the plant was so common that hardly anything else was seen on the hillsides.^[14] The Academy's 1899 edition is the first to place it in the family of the labiates.^[15]

In Venezuela and Puerto Rico the name passed to another medicinal herb, of the genus Hyptis.^[16][17] In Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) marrubio is also a seasoning, and as an adjective “brutish”.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – marruvio in the Libro de los caballos.^[2]
• 1399 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[6]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario has marruvio.^[3]
• 1551 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from the Latin.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes the plant and its medical use.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. horehound (Marrubium vulgare), a whitish, hairy herb of the mint family with square stems, wrinkled oval leaves and spikes of white flowers, common in dry places and used in medicine.^[7][21][1]
2. (Venezuela, Puerto Rico) A medicinal herb of the genus Hyptis.^[16][17]

Related words

• Latin marrubium
• Catalan malrubí

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. marrubio
3. ^ a b c 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. marrubio
4. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. marrubium
5. ^ 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. marrubio
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marrubio
7. ^ a b 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. marrubio
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ 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, 400
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 449
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. marrubio
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. 1119
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 504
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 639
16. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 249
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. marrubio
18. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 533
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. marrubio
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 681
21. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. marrubio