materia

Forms

materia f (plural materias)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin māteria (“timber; material, matter”), a learned word beside the inherited madera (“wood”).^[2][1][3][4] Vox dates the borrowing to the 13th century and notes that it kept the more general Latin sense.^[5]

Learned forms of the same Latin word are Portuguese matéria, Italian materia and French matière; the popular outcome is madeira, Galician madeira and Asturian madera, as in Spanish.^[6][7][8][1]

The Latin noun is formed māter (“mother”) + -ia.^[9][1][10] The DHLF explains it as a rustic word for the substance of the trunk, seen as the “mother” that puts out shoots, hence the hard wood of the tree and then timber for building.^[8] The philosophical sense “matter” is a semantic loan from Ancient Greek ὕλη (húlē, “wood, matter”), introduced by Cicero.^[1] De Vaan reconstructs the base as Proto-Indo-European *méh₂-tr- (“mother”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), on the air: este ayre pertenesçe vna partida a la materia çelestial “a part of this air belongs to the celestial matter”.^[11] Corominas dates it to 1220–1250, and Berceo uses it for the subject of a text: la materia es larga “the subject is long” (Vida de San Millán).^[2][11][12]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has both main senses, the substance that can take any form (in the Lapidario, of what a stone is made of) and the matter or business in hand (in the Partidas).^[13] The sense “pus” is recorded in 1495, and Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 already speaks of an ulcer that haze materia “makes pus”.^[2][14] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the Latin word and leaves the rest “to the philosophers”.^[15] Autoridades defines it in scholastic terms, as the part that with the form makes up the whole.^[16] The Academy in 1884 also records a model of handwriting that schoolchildren copy.^[17]

The DLE now puts first the physical sense, the reality that with energy makes up the physical world, then a particular material, matter as opposed to spirit, the subject of a work or of talk, a field of study or school subject, and an occasion or pretext.^[4] In the Americas the LHA records it from 1529, in Mexico.^[18] In Argentina and Uruguay materia previa is a subject a student still has to pass from an earlier year.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo speaks of the materia çelestial.^[11]
• 1220–1250 – Corominas's first record.^[2]
• c. 1230 – Berceo uses it for the subject of his poem.^[11][12]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for the substance of a stone.^[13]
• 1495 – the sense “pus”.^[2]
• 1529 – the first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias leaves its definition to the philosophers.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the sense “model of handwriting”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. matter: the physical reality perceptible by the senses, which with energy makes up the physical world.^[4][1]
2. A particular substance or material: Esta materia se ablanda con el calor.^[4][20]
3. Matter as opposed to spirit.^[4][20]
4. The central idea or theme of a literary, scientific or other work.^[4]
5. A subject or matter that is spoken, written or thought about: en materia de impuestos.^[4][1]
6. A field of knowledge; a school or university subject: Este año suspendió dos materias.^[4][1]
7. Occasion, cause or pretext for something.^[4]
8. pus.^[4][21]
9. (philosophy) In scholastic philosophy, the primary reality that, joined with form, makes up the essence of every body.^[4]

Word family

• antimateria
• materia prima
• materia gris

Related words

• material
• madera
• Latin māteria
• Portuguese madeira

Usage notes

En materia de means “as regards, in the field of”, and materia gris is the grey matter of the brain and, colloquially, intelligence.^[1][5] Román noted that the Chilean materia prima “raw material” was primera materia in the Academy's dictionary.^[22]

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. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4199
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. materia
5. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 476
13. ^ 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. materia
14. ^ 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. materia
15. ^ 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. 1122
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 512
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. 685
18. ^ 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. materia
19. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. materia
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
21. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. materia
22. ^ 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. 459