milla

Forms

milla f (plural millas)^[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin mīlia (“thousands, Roman miles”), short for mīlia passuum (“thousands of paces”), the plural of mīlle (“thousand”) in mīlle passus (“a thousand paces”), the Roman mile.^[2][1][3] The DRAE of 2001 calls it a semi-learned derivative, and Wiktionary a semi-learned borrowing.^[4][1] The REW instead takes the Spanish and Portuguese words from Catalan milla, which it derives from Latin.^[5] Portuguese has milha.^[1][6][7] The Spanish word is also used for the English and American mile, after English mile.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest CDH hit in a contemporary manuscript is the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), which gives the height of a mountain, after Saint Isidore, as bien por setenta e seys milla “a good seventy-six miles”.^[8] Earlier CDH hits of the form milia, in the Liber Regum and the Fazienda de Ultra Mar, mean “thousands”, not the measure.^[8] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250) has the word too.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for the measure of the Roman roads.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as a stretch of road of a thousand paces, three of which make a league, and the Autoridades as eight stadia or a thousand geometric paces.^[11][12] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 gave the nautical mile, a third of a league, and an old sense “quarter of a league”; in 1899 it described the mile as used mainly by sailors and equal to 1,852 metres.^[13][14] Today the measure varies with the use: the nautical mile of 1,852 m and the land mile of 1,609 m.^[2] In Panama millas are air miles, points exchanged for flights.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – setenta e seys milla in the Semejanza del mundo.^[8]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre.^[8][9]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses it for the Roman road measure.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin mille passus and milliarium.^[16]
• 1539 – first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias: three miles make a league.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the nautical mile.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mile, a measure of distance of varying length according to use; especially the English mile of about 1,609 m.^[2][1]
2. (historical) The Roman mile, about 1,478.5 m.^[2]
3. (nautical) The nautical mile of 1,852 m (milla marina, milla náutica).^[2]
4. (Panama, in the plural) Air miles.^[15]

Related words

• mijero
• mil
• millar
• Latin mille
• English mile

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. milla
3. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 463
4. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. milla
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5569
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. milha
7. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. milla
8. ^ 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. milla
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. milla
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. milla
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. 1136
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 569
13. ^ 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. 703
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 660
15. ^ 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. milla
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 380
17. ^ 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. milla