monte

Forms

monte m (plural montes)^[1] Old Spanish also had the short form mont and, rarely, munte.^[2][3] A diphthongised Old Spanish muent or muente is reported by Meyer-Lübke and García de Diego.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish monte, inherited from Latin mōns (“mountain”).^[6][7][8][1] Corominas notes that the Latin word had a close /o/, and explains the lack of a diphthong by the following nasal.^[6] The same Latin word is Portuguese monte, Galician monte, French mont, Italian monte, Sardinian monte and Romanian munte.^[4][5]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *mon-ti- (“protrusion, height”), cognate with Welsh and Breton words for “mountain”, and finds the o-grade of the Latin word unexpected.^[9] Wiktionary takes it from Proto-Indo-European *men- (“to stand out, tower”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), which in a prayer names monte Calvarie, “Mount Calvary”.^[10] Corominas notes that the Cid already uses it especially for woodland, and that earlier forms in charters may be Latin rather than Spanish.^[6][7] The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) has a title Del que ençendiere monte, “on him who sets fire to woodland”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish developed the sense “wooded or scrub-covered uncultivated land”, which it shares only with Old Portuguese.^[6] Later speakers distinguished monte alto, woodland of tall trees, from monte bajo, scrub, and the second is the more alive, above all in America.^[6][11] The phrase ir a monte, “to go hunting”, is in the anonymous second part of the Lazarillo.^[6]

From 1535 monte also named a public fund lending money at interest, and monte de piedad a charitable pawnshop from the late 16th century, probably borrowings from Italian monte in the sense “available capital”.^[6][7] Covarrubias described the monte de piedad as a charity lending for a year against a pledge worth a little more than the loan.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades also has the figurative “serious obstacle, hard to overcome”.^[11] Card games gave the senses “stock of undealt cards” and the gambling game monte.^[8]

In much of Latin America monte means weeds, and in several countries uncultivated land or the countryside outside a town; in eastern Peru it is the Amazon forest.^[13] In Central America and Venezuela it is also a slang name for marijuana.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses monte for a mountain and for woodland.^[10][6]
• c. 1200 – La fazienda de Ultra Mar has el monte de Galaath, the mount of Gilead.^[10]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the short form mont.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin mons and collis.^[14]
• 1506 – the word is recorded in the Canaries, for the woods of Icod in Tenerife.^[15]
• 1535 – the first record of monte as a fund lending at interest.^[6][7]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines monte de piedad.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades distinguishes monte alto and monte bajo.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology mons, montis.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mountain or hill, a large natural rise of the land: Subimos al monte más alto de la comarca.^[8][1]
2. Uncultivated land covered with trees, shrubs or grass; woodland, scrub.^[8][1]
3. (card games, dominoes) The stock of cards or tiles left after dealing.^[8]
4. (card games) monte, a gambling game in which the players bet on cards drawn from the pack; also the banker's stake in it.^[8]
5. A serious obstacle in an undertaking.^[8]
6. (colloquial) A thick, unkempt head of hair.^[8]
7. (colloquial) A pawnshop (monte de piedad).^[8]
8. (Latin America) Weeds; uncultivated land.^[13][1]
9. (obsolete) Hunting (montería).^[8]

Word family

• montaraz
• montazgo
• montear
• montero
• montería
• montés
• montón
• amontonar

Related words

• montaña
• montar
• montículo
• montuoso
• montano
• promontorio
• Latin mōns
• Portuguese monte

Usage notes

Monte alto is woodland of tall trees, monte bajo land covered with shrubs and grass.^[8] The proverb la cabra siempre tira al monte means literally “the goat always heads for the hills”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. monte
3. ^ 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. monte
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4424
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 131
7. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. monte
8. ^ 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. monte
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. monte
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 601
12. ^ 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. 1146
13. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. monte
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 382
15. ^ 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. monte
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 716