nave

Forms

nave f (plural naves)^[1] Old Spanish also had the apocopated form naf, used by Alfonso X for the constellation Argo, and wrote naue or nabe.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish nave, inherited from Latin nāvis (“ship”).^[4][5][1] Wiktionary gives the Old Spanish forms naf and naue.^[1] The old word nao, first recorded around 1260, is a separate borrowing from Catalan nau, which Portuguese nau also comes from.^[4][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese nave, Galician nave, Asturian nave, Occitan nau, Old French nef, Italian nave and Romanian naie.^[7][6][8]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *naus, an old u-stem later remade as an i-stem.^[9][1] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), probably “the floating one”, from a root meaning “to swim”.^[9] Its cognates are Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs, “ship”), Sanskrit नौ (nau), Old Irish náu and Old Norse nór.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the word in the plural for the ships that bring an army to Valencia: „arribado an las naves, fuera eran exidos” “the ships have put in, they had gone ashore”.^[3][4] The first record in a manuscript of its own time is the Semejanza del mundo of about 1223, spelt nabes.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's prose nave is the general word for a ship; the short form naf also names the constellation Argo, and the diminutive naveziella a small boat.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 describes a high-sided ship of large capacity, a floating castle, and notes that some say nao, which he thinks closer to the Greek.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as a decked ship with sails, unlike a barge, and without oars, unlike a galley; it also gives the main body of a church, which it derives from Greek naos “temple”, and the Church itself as la nave de San Pedro.^[11]

Modern etymologists explain the church sense instead as a comparison of the building with a ship, which navis already had in Medieval Latin.^{[12][13][14][15]} The Academy's 1817 dictionary describes it in buildings as a vaulted hall, iglesia de tres naves, and the 1869 edition lists la nave de San Pedro “the Catholic Church”.^[16][17] Today the word also names an aircraft or spacecraft (nave espacial) and a large shed used as a warehouse or factory.^[5][18]

In much of Latin America it is a colloquial word for a car, especially a big, showy one; in Colombia it is the leaf of a door or window.^[19][20] Judeo-Spanish keeps the word in proverbs such as nave sin kapitan “a ship without a captain”, said of a family or business without a head.^[21]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses naves for “ships”.^[3][4]
• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo writes nabes.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses naues and calls the constellation Argo la naf.^[2]
• c. 1260 – nao, borrowed from Catalan, appears beside it.^[4]
• 1551 – the first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[22]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it “a ship”, Latin navis.^[23]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the nave as a large, strong, high-sided ship.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary gives the architectural sense, iglesia de tres naves.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. navis” for the first time.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ship or vessel.^[5][1]
2. An aircraft; especially a spacecraft (nave espacial): La nave se acopló a la estación.^[5][1][18]
3. (architecture) A nave or aisle: each of the long spaces between walls or rows of arches in a church or other large building: La catedral tiene cinco naves.^[5][1]
4. A long building or bay used as a warehouse, factory and the like (nave industrial).^[5][18][1]
5. (historical) A decked sailing ship of war or trade, without oars.^[5][11]
6. (Latin America, colloquial) A car, especially a large luxurious one.^[19][25]
7. (Colombia) The leaf of a door or window.^[19][20]

Word family

• navecilla
• naveta
• navichuela

Related words

• naval
• navegación
• navegar
• navío
• nao
• nauta
• náufrago
• Latin navis
• Catalan nau

Usage notes

Quemar las naves “to burn one's boats”, to leave oneself no way back, alludes to Hernán Cortés's ships at the start of the conquest of Mexico.^[18][26] The old word nao, from Catalan, survives in historical writing.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. nave
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nave
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nave
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. nave
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. navis
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4570
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 5, 885
9. ^ a b c 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 Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1159
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 653
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 483
13. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. nave
14. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. nave
15. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. navis
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 596
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 533
18. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nave
19. ^ 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. nave
20. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 584
21. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. nâve
22. ^ 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. nave
23. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 177
24. ^ 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
25. ^ Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. nave
26. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. nave