nuera

Forms

nuera f (plural nueras, masculine yerno, masculine plural yernos)^[1] Judeo-Spanish has enuera and ermuera.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin nŏra (“daughter-in-law”), which replaced classical Latin nurus, through Old Spanish nuera.^[4][1][5] The vowel and the ending were remade after the other kinship words: the DLE speaks of a crossing with suegra “mother-in-law”, and García de Diego and Bénaben of the model of socrus, which became socra, with the feminine ending ⟨-a⟩.^[5][2][6] The REW names the word for the mother-in-law or soror as possible models for the ⟨o⟩.^[7] The form in ⟨-a⟩ is already in the Appendix Probi.^[8][1] Its stressed ⟨o⟩ gave the Spanish diphthong ⟨ue⟩.^[6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese nora, Galician nora, Catalan nora, Italian nuora and Asturian nuera.^[2][7][9] Sardinian and some Italian dialects continue nura, and Romanian a form *norus.^[8][7]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *snuso- and Proto-Indo-European *snusós (“daughter-in-law”), and took its u-stem from the word for the mother-in-law.^[10][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek νυός (nuós), Sanskrit स्नुषा (snuṣā́) and Old English snoru.^[10][11] De Vaan considers it possibly a derivative of the root *sneu- (“to drip, nurse”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 979.^[4][9] The first record in a Spanish text in the CDH is the Liber Regum (c. 1194–1211, in a copy of the early 13th century), on Judah, who had two sons by Thamar, so nuera “Tamar, his daughter-in-law”.^[12] The Fazienda de Ultra Mar tells the same story: Dyxo Juda a Tamar su nuera “Judah said to Tamar, his daughter-in-law”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense has not changed since the first records.^[12][5] The medieval law codes pair the word with yerno “son-in-law”: the Fueros de Aragón (1247) rule on a son-in-law or daughter-in-law who makes the parents-in-law swear in court, and the Fuero General de Navarra says that mother-in-law and daughter-in-law are like mother and daughter.^[12]

Covarrubias (1611) has the proverb A ti lo digo, mi hijuela; entiéndelo tú, mi nuera, said when a reproach meant for one person is addressed to another.^[13] From 1817 the Academy's dictionary has the proverb Arremangóse mi nuera, y volcó en el fuego la caldera, of idle people who spoil everything when they try to work.^[14] In Aragon entrar por el ojo de la nuera meant to win someone's favour.^[15] The DLE now defines a nuera as the wife of one's son or daughter.^[5]

Timeline

• 979 – Corominas's date of first record.^[4]
• c. 1194–1211 – the Liber Regum calls Tamar Judah's nuera.^[12]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has the same story.^[12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón pair yerno and nuera.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin nurus for nuera, muger de tu hijo.^[16]
• 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb A ti lo digo, mi hijuela.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin nurus.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A daughter-in-law: the wife of one's son, or the spouse of one's son or daughter: Mi nuera nos invitó a comer el domingo.^[5][1]

Related words

• yerno
• suegra
• Latin nurus
• Portuguese nora

Usage notes

The masculine counterpart is yerno “son-in-law”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4643
3. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. ermuera
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nuera
5. ^ 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. nuera
6. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. nuera
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. nurus
8. ^ a b 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, 958
9. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 501
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. nurus
12. ^ 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. nuera
13. ^ 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. 1168
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 604
15. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 18
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 387
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. nuera
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. 745