nutrimento

Forms

nutrimento m (plural nutrimentos)^[1] Old Spanish also had nudrimiento and nudrimento.^[2][3] Moliner still gives nutrimiento as a variant.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin nūtrīmentum (“nourishment”), a learned word.^[5][6][1] The Latin noun was formed from nūtriō (“to nourish”) with the suffix -mentum, and meant what feeds or sustains anything, also fuel for a fire and, figuratively, what feeds a feeling.^[7][1] De Vaan derives the verb from the noun nūtrīx (“child's nurse”).^[8] The same Latin word gives French nutriment and Italian nutrimento.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prose of Alfonso X has the form nudrimiento: the Moamín advises giving mutton soaked in hot water, from the neck, que es de meior nudrimiento “which is of better nourishment”.^[2] The Latinate form nutrimento is first in Enrique de Villena's Arte cisoria (1423), which warns that food spoils and ministra fétido nutrimento a los miembros “gives foul nourishment to the limbs”.^[3][6] The DICCA-XV gives 1440 as the DCECH's date.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged at first to medicine: a medical treatise of before 1400 already speaks of food a buen nudrimento conuertido “turned into good nourishment”.^[3] Kasten and his colleagues file a passage of the General estoria (1280) under the figurative sense, “what feeds the growth or strength of something”.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades noted that it was mostly used as a synonym of nutrición, and quoted Jacinto Polo for the figurative sense: La quietud es nutrimento del alma “quietness is nourishment of the soul”.^[9] Terreros gave the same moral use, the prayer that nourishes the soul.^[10] In medical Spanish it is now a synonym of nutriente.^[11]

Timeline

• 1250–1300 – the Moamín has the form nudrimiento.^[2]
• Before 1400 – a medical treatise has nudrimento.^[3]
• 1423 – Villena's Arte cisoria has nutrimento.^[3][6]
• 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo, as nutrimiento.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the literal and the moral sense.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Latin etymology.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. nourishment, nutrition (nutrición): the action and effect of nourishing.^[5][14]
2. The nourishing substance of food;^[5][11][1] (medicine) a nutrient: Las raíces sacan el nutrimento de la tierra.^[5][11][1]
3. (figurative) What feeds the growth, activity or strength of something, especially in the moral sphere.^[5][14]

Related words

• nutrir
• nutricio
• nutrición
• nutriente
• Latin nūtrīmentum
• French nutriment

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. nutrimento
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nutrimento
4. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nutrimento
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. nutrimento
6. ^ a b c d 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. nutrimento
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 695
10. ^ 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, 683
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. nutrimento
12. ^ 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. nutrimento
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 747
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. nutrimento