noviembre

Forms

noviembre m (plural noviembres)^[1] Old Spanish forms include nouiembre, nouienbre, nouenbre and, in Leonese charters, nouembrio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin November (“November”).^[4][5][1] The Latin month was named from novem (“nine”) because it was the ninth month of the Roman year, which began in March.^[4][6][7] The REW explains the Old Spanish form novembrio from a variant *novembrius.^[8]

The same Latin word is Portuguese novembro, Galician novembro, Catalan novembre, French novembre and Italian novembre.^[8][1]

Wiktionary takes the Latin name to be perhaps a shortening of a form meaning “of the ninth month”, with the word for “month”, mēnsis; the OLD compares the formation of December.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH in a Spanish text is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–1250), which sets the grape-harvest holidays from Michaelmas fasta el primer dia de nouiembre “until the first day of November”.^[3] Corominas dates the word to 1220–1250.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the month.^[5] Alfonso X's Estoria de España explains the names of the months from their order counted from March.^[9] Covarrubias explained it the same way, as the ninth month counting from March, and the Diccionario de Autoridades called it the ninth month of the old Roman year and the eleventh of the Church's calendar.^[10][11] Terreros added that Ausonius pictured it as a priest of Isis, whose feasts fell in it, and that it was under the protection of Diana.^[12] In 1554 a chronicler in Peru equated it with the Inca month laimequiz.^[13]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has nouiembre.^[3]
• 1233 – a Latin charter is dated mense nouenbrio.^[3]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in a 15th-century copy) has Novienbre shaking down acorns for the pigs.^[3]
• 1243 – a Leonese charter is dated enno mes de nouembrio.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Noviembre mes with Latin nouembris.^[14]
• 1554 – the first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the name from its place counting from March.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin november, novembris.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. November: the eleventh month of the year, which has 30 days, between octubre and diciembre: Nació un 3 de noviembre.^[5][1]

Related words

• nueve
• noveno
• Latin novem

Usage notes

Like the other month names it is written with a small letter and is masculine.^[1][5] The abbreviation is nov.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. noviembre
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. noviembre
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nueve
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. noviembre
6. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. noviembre
7. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. november
9. ^ 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. noviembre
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. 1167
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 685
12. ^ 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, 676
13. ^ 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. noviembre
14. ^ 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. noviembre
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 698