olmo

Forms

olmo m (plural olmos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish olmo, inherited from Latin ulmus (“elm”).^[2][3][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese olmo, Catalan om, French orme, Italian olmo and Romanian ulm.^[4][1] Other forms in Spain are Aragonese urmo and Asturian omo.^[5] The older Catalan form was Old Catalan olm, which gave way from the 15th century on.^[6]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *elmos through *olmos and compares Old Irish lem and Old Norse almr.^[7] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁élem (“mountain elm”),^[1] but de Vaan finds a PIE form hard to reconstruct and suggests that the word, found only in Italic, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic, may come from a non-Indo-European language.^[7] It is related to English elm.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 935, a charter in Oelschläger's list of first records.^[2] DEMel's first record is in the Fuero de Lerma of 1148.^[9] The Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235) fines whoever cuts an elm, a willow, a mulberry or a holm oak: esta caloña sea por olmo, e por salze, e por moral.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the elm tree.^[3][9] The proverbial phrase pedir peras al olmo, “to ask the elm for pears”, to expect from someone what they cannot give, is used twice in Don Quijote.^[11][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades called the elm a kind of poplar.^[12] In Mexico the name also goes to other trees, such as an ulmaceous tree of the genus Chaetoptelea, and in places to the poplar.^[13]

Timeline

• 935 – first record, in a charter.^[2]
• 1148 – the Fuero de Lerma has olmo.^[9]
• c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá fines the cutting of elms.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin ulmus.^[14]
• 1605–1615 – Don Quijote uses pedir peras al olmo.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the proverb.^[12]
• 1849 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The elm, a tall tree of the family Ulmaceae (Ulmus minor), common in Spain, with rough, toothed leaves and winged fruit, grown for shade and timber.^[3][1][16]
2. (Mexico) Any of several other trees, especially Chaetoptelea mexicana.^[13]

Word family

• olmedo
• olmeda

Related words

• Latin ulmus
• English elm

Usage notes

Pedir peras al olmo means to expect the impossible from someone: Esperar puntualidad de él es pedir peras al olmo.^[16][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. olmo
3. ^ a b c 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. olmo
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9036
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ulmus
6. ^ 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. 6, 57
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. ulmus
9. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. olmo
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. olmo
11. ^ a b Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 806
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, s.v. olmo
13. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 771
14. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 389
15. ^ 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. olmo
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. olmo