navío

Forms

navío m (plural navíos)^[1] Old Spanish wrote the word nauio, naujo or navio, most often in the plural nauios.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nauío, inherited from Latin nāvigium (“vessel, ship”).^[4][1][5][6] DICCA-XV instead calls it taken from the Latin word, that is, a learned borrowing.^[7]

The same Latin word gave Portuguese navio, Galician navío, Old Occitan navei and Old French navoi “fleet”.^[8][9] An altered form Vulgar Latin *navilium lies behind navilie and navirie “fleet”, whence French navire, and behind Old Occitan navili, the source of Italian naviglio.^[10][8] Catalan navili may come from the same variant, since the classical word would regularly have given a different Catalan form.^[11]

The Latin noun is formed from nāvigō (“to sail”) with the suffix -ium, and the verb from nāvis (“ship”).^[1][12] In Medieval Latin it also meant “fleet”, “ferry” and “sea voyage”.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Among the early records is the privilege that Fernando III gave Seville in 1251, granting the city veynte carpenteros que labren vuestros nauíos en vuestro barrio “twenty carpenters to build your ships in your quarter”.^[3] The sense there is simply “ship, vessel”, the sense the prose of Alfonso X also has.^[14]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish navío was a general word for a ship, used beside nave;^[7][14] Nebrija in 1495 still defined it as the same thing as nave.^[7][14] In the Americas it is recorded from 1512, in Puerto Rico, for the ships that sailed between the islands and the mainland.^[15]

By the 19th century the Academy defined it first as a three-masted, square-rigged warship with two or three decks and as many gun batteries, and only secondly as any large decked sailing ship used for trade or the mail; it also listed navío de línea “ship of the line” and navío de alto bordo “high-sided ship”.^[16] The 1899 edition added a thieves' cant sense “body” and the constellation Argo.^[17] The current DLE puts the general sense “large ship” first and the old warship second.^[4][18]

In the Canary Islands navío was the name of a cart dressed up as a ship and drawn by oxen in village festivals, recorded in a diary of 1800.^[19] In north-western Mexico it names a small tree of the pea family.^[20]

Timeline

• 1251 – the privilege of Fernando III to Seville speaks of the city's nauíos.^[3]
• 1255 – Alfonso X's Fuero Real has a title on shipwrecked nauíos.^[3]
• c. 1275 – Corominas's date for the first record.^[5][21]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija equates navío with nave and gives Latin navigium.^[7]
• 1512 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[15]
• 1786–1793 – Terreros treats nave and navío as one word for a seagoing vessel.^[22]
• 1800 – a Canarian diary describes the festival cart called navío.^[19]
• 1843 – the Academy defines it first as a three-masted warship.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology navigium.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large ship: Un navío de carga entró anoche en el puerto.^[4][23][1]
2. (historical) A warship with three masts and square sails, with two or three decks and as many batteries of guns.^[4][24]
3. (dated) A large decked sailing ship, heavily built, used for trade or carrying the mail.^[4][16]
4. (Canary Islands, dated) A cart decorated as a ship, drawn by oxen in a village festival.^[19]
5. (north-western Mexico) A small tree of the pea family with yellow flowers, Conzattia sericea.^[20]

Related words

• nave
• navegar
• naviero
• Latin navigium
• Portuguese navio

Usage notes

Set phrases include navío de línea “ship of the line”, navío de guerra “warship” and the naval ranks capitán de navío and alférez de navío.^[16][24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. navío
3. ^ 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. navío
4. ^ 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. navío
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nave
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. navigium
7. ^ a b c d 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. navío
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5862
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. navio
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. navire
11. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. navili
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. nāvigium
13. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. navigium
14. ^ 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. navío
15. ^ 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. navío
16. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 495
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 689
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. navío
19. ^ a b c 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. navío
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. navío
21. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 487
22. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 2, 653
23. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. navío
24. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. navío