nodriza

Forms

nodriza f (plural nodrizas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it nodriça; an older form without the final vowel, nodriz, is also recorded.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nūtrīx (“child's nurse”), according to the DLE and Corominas.^[5][6] García de Diego derives it from the Old Spanish form nodriz, the direct outcome of the Latin word.^[3][4] Wiktionary and Gómez de Silva derive it rather from Late Latin nūtrīcia (“wet nurse”), the feminine of the adjective nūtrīcius (“nursing, nourishing”) used as a noun.^[1][7] This Late Latin word is the source of French nourrice, Occitan noirissa and Catalan nodrissa, while Italian nodrice continues the classical noun.^[4][8][9] The English word nurse comes from the French one.^[10] Spanish also has the learned doublet nutriz.^[3][10]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *(s)noutrī and Proto-Indo-European *sneu-tr-ih₂- (“female nurser”), from a root that meant releasing liquid, as a mother's milk, in Sanskrit.^[11] The verb nūtriō (“to suckle, nourish”) was formed from the same stem.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250) has the heading Del que yoguiere con la nodriça “of him who lies with the wet nurse”.^[2] The other early records are also legal: the Fuero General de Navarra sets the soldada de nodriça, the wet nurse's wage that a father owes the mother who nurses the child herself.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the Libro de Alexandre says that the stone galactite gives nurses plenty of milk.^[2] The figurative use is old: Autoridades (1734) quotes the Comendador's commentary on the Trescientas, where greed for honour is the “very dirty nurse” of avarice.^[12] The word is now also used in apposition for a ship or aircraft that supplies fuel to others (buque nodriza), invariable in the plural (aviones nodriza).^[5][13] Moliner also records it for a device in car engines that feeds petrol to the cylinders.^[14] In Colombia and Uruguay it once meant a safety pin, and among Spanish speakers in the United States it is a person who cares for the sick at home.^[15]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – nodriça in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[2]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio (copy of the mid-14th century).^[2]
• mid-13th century – the date of first record in Corominas.^[6][10]
• 1250–1300 – the Fuero General de Navarra (copy of the early 14th century).^[2]
• 1492 – Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary glosses Latin nutrix as ama.^[16]
• 1734 – Autoridades: the woman who suckles another's child, Latin nutrix.^[12]
• 1839 – first record in the Americas, in Cuba.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's first etymology: from Latin nutrix.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wet nurse: a woman who suckles a child that is not her own (ama): La familia contrató a una nodriza del pueblo para el recién nacido.^[5][1][14]
2. (in apposition) A ship or aircraft that refuels others, as in buque nodriza “supply ship”: Los cazas repostaron en el aire gracias a un avión nodriza.^[5][13]
3. (automotive) A device that feeds petrol to the cylinders of an engine without pressurising the tank.^[14]
4. (Colombia, Uruguay, dated) A safety pin.^[15]
5. (United States) A person who treats the sick or gives them their medicine, usually at home.^[15]

Related words

• nutrir
• nutriz
• Latin nūtrīx
• French nourrice
• English nurse

Usage notes

Used in apposition, nodriza does not change in the plural: naves nodriza.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nodriza
3. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4646
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
5. ^ a b c d 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. nodriza
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nutrir
7. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. nodriza
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. nourrice
9. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. nodrissa
10. ^ a b c Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 499
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 675
13. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. nodriza
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nodriza
15. ^ 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. nodriza
16. ^ 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. nodriza
17. ^ 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. nodriza
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. 741