nabo

Forms

nabo m (plural nabos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nabo, inherited from Latin nāpus (“turnip”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls the word common to all the Romance languages and in general use in every period of Spanish.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese nabo, Galician nabo, Asturian nabu, Aragonese napo, Catalan nap, Italian napo and Romanian nap;^[5][6][7][1] French navet is formed with a diminutive suffix from Old French nef.^[5][6][7][1]

The OLD treats the Latin word as an adaptation of Ancient Greek νᾶπυ (nâpu, “mustard”), and Wiktionary derives it from the Greek word as well.^[8][1] The DHLF finds a borrowing from Greek unlikely because the meanings are far apart, and calls the Latin word a Mediterranean term of obscure origin, similar to rāpum (“turnip”).^[7] Gómez de Silva also suggests a Mediterranean or Egyptian source;^[9][1] Wiktionary takes the Greek word itself to be probably a loan from Demotic Egyptian.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Moamín, the Castilian book of falconry of 1250, in a copy of the second half of the 13th century: turnip seed is an ingredient of a remedy, and boiled turnips are used to soften the feathers of a hawk: E si tomaren los nabos e los coxieren bien en el agua “and if they take the turnips and boil them well in water”.^[10][11] The sense is the plant and its edible root, as today.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Arabic farming treatises translated into Castilian around 1300 list turnips among the garden vegetables, beside leeks, carrots and radishes.^[12][10] Nebrija gave Latin napus for the long, thin turnip.^[13] The Autoridades of 1734 added the sense “any thick main root” and an architectural sense: a central wooden cylinder, as in a spiral staircase or a spire, also called árbol by comparison with a ship's mast.^[14]

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 gave the stump of a horse's tail and, in thieves' slang, “embargo, seizure”, a sense that Hidalgo had already recorded in 1609.^[15][16] The Academy also listed the proverb cada cosa en su tiempo, y los nabos en Adviento, on doing each thing in its season.^[17] Modern colloquial Spanish uses the word for the penis, and in Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia nabo means a foolish person.^{[18][19][20][1]}

Timeline

• 1250 – the Moamín uses nabos and the seed of turnips in remedies for hawks.^[10][11]
• c. 1300 – the Castilian versions of the farming books of Ibn Baṣṣāl and Ibn Wāfid name nabos among the vegetables.^[12][10]
• c. 1330 – Corominas dates the word to Don Juan Manuel's Conde Lucanor.^[3][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin napus for the long, thin turnip.^[13]
• 1538 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada.^[21]
• 1609 – Hidalgo records the thieves' slang sense “embargo”.^[16]
• 1734 – the Autoridades adds the senses “thick main root” and “central cylinder of a structure”.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the stump of a horse's tail and the children's game arráncate, nabo.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. turnip: an annual plant of the mustard family, the crucíferas, with yellow flowers and a fleshy, edible white or yellowish root.^[4][1]
2. The root of this plant, eaten as a vegetable: Echó dos nabos al cocido.^[4][1]
3. Any thick main root, such as a taproot.^[4][18]
4. The stump of the tail of a horse or other beast of burden.^[4]
5. (architecture) A vertical cylinder at the centre of a framework, on which its parts rest, as the steps of a spiral staircase (escalera de caracol).^[4]
6. (nautical) A round timber that supports a yard; the heart of a timber split by frost.^[4][1]
7. (vulgar) The penis.^[18][19][1]
8. (Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, colloquial) A foolish or naive person; also as an adjective.^[20][19][1]

Word family

• naba
• nabar
• nabina
• nabiza
• colinabo
• nabicol

Related words

• Latin nāpus
• Portuguese nabo
• Catalan nap

Usage notes

Nabo gallego is another name for the round turnip, naba.^[4][2] Arráncate, nabo was a children's game in which one boy lay on the ground and another tried to lift him.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 199
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nabo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. nabo
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. napus
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5831
7. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. nabo
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. nabo
11. ^ a b c 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. nabo
12. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. nabo
13. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 385
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 641
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 592
16. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 188
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 530
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nabo
19. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. nabo
20. ^ 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. nabo
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. nabo