nuez

Forms

nuez f (plural nueces)^[1] Old Spanish texts write the plural nuezes and nueses;^[2] noces also occurs.^[2]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Vulgar Latin *nŏcem, a form of the accusative of Latin nux (“nut”) with an open /ɔ/ in place of the Latin short /u/.^[1][3][4] The classical form would have given a Spanish word without the diphthong ⟨ue⟩.^[1] The same vowel lies behind Portuguese noz and Catalan nou, and Corominas suggests that a Celtic word for the nut, *knova, which also gave Catalan clova (“nutshell”), may explain it.^[3] In his Catalan dictionary he calls the cause of the change unclear and offers the Celtic word only as a possibility.^[5]

The Latin noun also gave Galician noz, Asturian nuez, French noix, Italian noce and Romanian nucă.^[6][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *knuk-, with cognates only in Celtic and Germanic, such as Old Irish cnú, Old Norse hnot and Old English hnutu.^[7][1] Because the word is limited to these branches, has different suffixes in each, and begins with a sequence that does not look Indo-European, he takes it to be a loan from a non-Indo-European language.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo uses the nut as a thing of no value in the Vida de San Millán: mas non li valió todo una nuez foradada “but all of it was not worth a holed nut to him”.^[8][9] The Libro de Alexandre has the same turn: una nuez non daría “I would not give a nut”.^[8] Alfonso X's Lapidario describes a stone that is always found in the shape of a walnut.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The name spread from the walnut to other nuts: nueç moscada “nutmeg” appears in Alfonso X's Picatrix of 1256, and today nuez is also said of the coconut and the areca nut.^[10][4] The anatomical sense, the bump of the larynx, is recorded from the end of the 15th century: Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 renders epiglottis as nuez del cuello.^[11][12] Catalan has the same use, nou del coll.^[6] Covarrubias also records the nuez de ballesta, the part of the crossbow that holds the string, so called from its likeness to the nut, and the proverb Más es el ruido que las nueces, the ancestor of today's mucho ruido y pocas nueces.^[13][1] Autoridades quotes Quevedo on a throat whose nuez stuck out from hunger.^[14]

In Chile the word also names the cylinder of a revolver, and in the Spanish of New Mexico it means nutmeg.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Vida de San Millán speaks of una nuez foradada.^[3][8]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the word for the walnut.^[10]
• 1256 – the Picatrix mentions nueç moscada, nutmeg.^[10]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin epiglottis as nuez del cuello.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Spanish–Latin dictionary gives Latin nux and iuglans.^[17]
• 1513 – first record in the Americas: thousands of nuts are shipped to Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the crossbow nut and the proverb about the noise and the nuts.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines the fruit, the cypress cone and the bump in the throat.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin nux, nucis.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. Walnut, the fruit of the nogal: Partió las nueces con un martillo.^[4][1]
2. A nut or similar fruit of other trees: nuez de coco, nuez moscada “nutmeg”.^[4][20]
3. The Adam's apple, also called nuez de Adán: Se le movía la nuez al tragar.^[4][11]
4. The nut of a crossbow, the piece that holds the drawn string.^[4][13]
5. (music) The frog of the bow of a violin or similar instrument, used to tighten the hair.^[4][20]
6. (Chile) The cylinder of a revolver.^[15]

Word family

• noceda
• nogal
• cascanueces
• nocedal
• nuégado

Related words

• nogada
• núcleo
• Latin nux
• Portuguese noz

Usage notes

The plural is nueces, with ⟨c⟩ before ⟨e⟩.^[1] The proverb mucho ruido y pocas nueces “much noise and few nuts” is said of something that promises more than it gives.^[1][13]

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
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nuez
4. ^ 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. nuez
5. ^ 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, 966
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6009
7. ^ 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
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nuez
9. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra
10. ^ a b c d 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. nuez
11. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. nuez
12. ^ a b 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. nuez
13. ^ a b c d 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. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 690
15. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. nuez
16. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 138
17. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 387
18. ^ 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. nuez
19. ^ 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
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nuez