noche

Forms

noche f (plural noches)^[1] Old Spanish also wrote noch and nueche;^[2][1][3] nuyt, nueyt and nueit are Aragonese.^[2][1][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish noche, inherited from Latin nox (“night”), from its accusative noctem.^[4][5][1][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese noite, Galician noite, Asturian nueche, Aragonese nueit, Catalan nit, French nuit, Italian notte and Romanian noapte.^[3][7][1]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *nok⁽ʷ⁾ts and Proto-Indo-European *nókʷts; cognates include Ancient Greek νύξ (núx) and Old English niht, the source of English “night”.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to about 1140.^[4] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) the king's letter reaches Burgos antes de la noche “before nightfall”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose uses the noun for the time without sunlight and has the phrases de noche “at night” and prima noche “the first hours of the night”.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the proverb la noche es capa de pecadores “night is the sinners' cloak”.^[11] Autoridades (1734) adds the figurative senses “confusion, darkness, sadness” and, in poetry, “death”.^[12] In the thieves' cant recorded by Hidalgo in 1609 noche meant a death sentence.^[13]

The DLE now also lists noche as an adverb, “at night”, as in ayer noche.^[5] In Bolivia and Chile noche is a cinema or theatre show beginning after nine in the evening.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – first record, in the Cantar de mio Cid.^[4][9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has de noche.^[10]
• early 14th century – anoche “last night” is first recorded.^[4]
• 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme, in the phrase hizo noche “spent the night”.^[15]
• 1609 – Hidalgo records noche “death sentence” in thieves' cant.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records la noche es capa de pecadores.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin nox, noctis.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. night: the part of the day between sunset and dawn.^[5][1]
2. evening, after sunset.^[1]
3. The weather during the night: Hizo una noche fresca.^[5]
4. (figurative) Confusion, darkness or sadness.^[5][12]

Adverb

1. At night: anteayer noche;^[5][1] (chiefly Mexico, Central America) late at night, after dark.^[5][1]

Word family

• anochecer
• trasnochar
• anoche
• medianoche
• Nochebuena
• Nochevieja

Related words

• nocturno
• pernoctar
• Latin nox
• Portuguese noite

Usage notes

Set phrases include buenas noches “good evening, good night”, de la noche a la mañana “overnight, suddenly”, hacer noche “to stop somewhere for the night” and noche toledana “a sleepless night”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. noche
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4629
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. noche
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. noche
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. noche
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5973
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. nox
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. noche
10. ^ 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. noche
11. ^ 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. 1165
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 673
13. ^ 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
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. noche
15. ^ 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. noche
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. 740