naval

Forms

naval m or f (masculine and feminine plural navales)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nāvālis (“of ships”), formed from nāvis (“ship”) and the suffix -ālis.^[2][3][1][4] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of nave, with a date of about 1440.^[5][6] Wiktionary describes it as inherited from the Latin accusative, but the dictionaries of Spanish and Portuguese treat it as a learned word.^[1][7] The same Latin word gave Portuguese naval, Italian navale and French naval, the last borrowed in the early 14th century.^[6][8]

The Latin noun for ship goes back to Proto-Italic *nāw- and Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), probably the floating one, from a root meaning to swim; its cognates include Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alfonso X's General Estoria (1280), which explains the Latinate form nauale as “a battle fought on water”, “a thing of ships”.^[10][11] The Aragonese translations of Juan Fernández de Heredia (1376–1396) speak of batalla naual and huest naual, a fleet.^[10]

Semantic evolution

For centuries the adjective meant “of ships and navigation”: Nebrija glosses it “a thing of ships” and also records naval lienço, sailcloth.^[12] As a noun naval named a kind of linen cloth, which appears in Puerto Rico from 1512 as lienzo de nabal.^[13] The DLE still records this sense as obsolete, the same as morlés.^[2]

Covarrubias in 1611 and the Diccionario de Autoridades in 1734 define it as belonging to ships.^[14][15] In 1869 the Academy added “belonging to the navy”, with examples such as colegio naval and batalla naval.^[16] In Chile and Paraguay naval is also a noun for a sailor of the navy.^[17]

Timeline

• 1280 – Alfonso X's General Estoria explains nauale “a battle on water”.^[10][11]
• 1376–1396 – Fernández de Heredia's Aragonese translations use batalla naual.^[10]
• c. 1440 – the date Corominas gives for the word.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija glosses it with Latin naualis and records naval lienço.^[12]
• 1512 – lienzo de nabal, a linen cloth, in Puerto Rico.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records batalla naval.^[14]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as “belonging to ships”.^[15]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense “of the navy”.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology Latin navalis.^[18]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to ships and navigation: la industria de construcción naval.^[2][19]
2. Of or relating to the navy: Pasó dos años en una base naval del sur.^[2][1]

Noun

1. (obsolete) A kind of linen cloth (morlés).^[2][13]
2. (Chile, Paraguay) A sailor of the navy.^[17]

Related words

• nave
• navío
• navegar
• náutico
• Latin nāvis

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. naval
3. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 483
5. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nave
6. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 485
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. naval
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. naval
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. naval
11. ^ 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. naval
12. ^ a b 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. naval
13. ^ a b c 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. naval
14. ^ 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. 1159
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 653
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 533
17. ^ 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. naval
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 734
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. naval