onza

onza¹ ounce

Etymology tree of onza¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin ūnus

Aromanian un

French un

Italian un

Italian uno

Spanish uno

Latin ūncia

Spanish onza

Dutch ons

From the same root · onza¹

Latin adūnō ← ūnus

Latin noenum ← ūnus

Latin ūllus ← ūnus

Latin ūna ← ūnus

Latin ūnanimus ← ūnus

Latin ūndecim ← ūnus

Latin ūndēvīgintī ← ūnus

Latin ūni- ← ūnus

Latin ūnicornis ← ūnus

Latin ūnicus ← ūnus

Latin ūniō ← ūnus

Latin ūnitās ← ūnus

Latin ūniter ← ūnus

Latin ūniversus ← ūnus

Latin ūnusquisque ← ūnus

Italian ognuno ← uno

Italian qualcuno ← uno

English inch ← ūncia

Latin deū̆nx ← ūncia

Latin quīncū̆nx ← ūncia

Latin sēmū̆ncia ← ūncia

Pronunciation

• /ˈonθa/, [ˈõn̟.θa], /ˈonsa/^[1]

Forms

onza f (plural onzas)^[1] Alfonso de Palencia and Nebrija spell it onça, as expected;^[2] Corominas thinks the onza of the Libro de Apolonio may be due to onze “eleven”.^[2]

Etymology

The word for the unit of weight is inherited from Latin uncia (“a twelfth part; ounce”).^[2][3][4][1] The OLD and Vox derive the Latin word from ūnus (“one”).^[5][6] Lewis and Short compare Ancient Greek οὐγκία (ounkía), a Sicilian word, and Wiktionary allows that the Latin word may have been borrowed from Greek.^[7][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese onça, Galician onza, Catalan unça, Occitan onsa, French once and Italian oncia, and English ounce and inch.^{[8][9][10][1]} The learned doublet uncia is recorded from the 17th century.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), which rules that la libra dela carne deue seer de quarenta et ocho onças, “the pound of meat must be of forty-eight ounces”.^[11] Corominas's first record is the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a copy of the mid-14th century).^[2][11] In Alfonso X's Lapidario half an onça of warm oil is the antidote to a poisonous stone.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word has been in general use at all periods.^[2] As in Latin, the onza was the twelfth part of the Roman pound, but in Castile it was a sixteenth of the pound, divided into 8 drachms or 16 adarmes;^[13] Autoridades notes pounds of 12, 20 or 36 ounces in some places.^[13] The gold coin called onza de oro, of about an ounce, was struck from Philip III to Ferdinand VII.^[4][14] The Academy's 1884 dictionary records the proverb Más vale onza de sangre que libra de amistad, “an ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship”.^[15]

In modern Spanish an onza is also a square of a chocolate bar, and it translates the English and American ounce.^[4][16][1] The onza troy weighs 31.103 g.^[4]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – first record, in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[11]
• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio (in a copy of the mid-14th century), Corominas's first record.^[2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario measures oil by the onça.^[12]
• 1518 – first record in the Americas: pearls weighed in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1737 – Autoridades gives the Castilian ounce as a sixteenth of the pound.^[13]
• 1843 – the derivative desonzar enters the Academy's dictionary.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. uncia”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ounce: each of the 16 parts of the old pound (libra), about 28.75 g; also the English or American ounce.^[4][16][1]
2. (historical) The twelfth part of the Roman as or pound, and of other ancient measures.^[4][16]
3. A square of a bar of chocolate: Me comí dos onzas antes de cenar.^[4][16]
4. (historical) Short for onza de oro, a gold coin of about an ounce.^[16][4]

Word family

• desonzar

onza² big cat

Pronunciation

• /ˈonθa/, [ˈõn̟.θa], /ˈonsa/^[1]

Forms

onza f (plural onzas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the big cat is perhaps inherited from Vulgar Latin *luncea, a derivative of Ancient Greek λύγξ (lúnx, “lynx”) (the source of lince), with the loss of its /l/, taken for the article.^{[4][6][18][19]} Corominas notes that this explanation, accepted since Diez, rests on Catalan onça and unça (both in Llull), Pedro de Alcalá's Mozarabic únça and French once (13th century), with the /l/ kept in Italian lonza, found in Dante; but he considers the etymology really uncertain.^[18][19] The DELI also takes the Italian word from the same Vulgar Latin form.^[20]

Wiktionary and Cunha give a route through French instead: Middle French once, from Old French lonce, whose ⟨l⟩ was taken for the article, and ultimately from the Italian word.^[1][21][8] Older Academy dictionaries derived the word directly from Latin lynx, from 1884 to 2001.^[15][22]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nebrija's Latin–Spanish Lexicon of 1492 glosses Latin panther as la onça animal and caurio as bramar las onças, “to roar, of ounces”.^[23] His Spanish–Latin Vocabulario (c. 1495), Corominas's first record, has Onça animal peregrino, a foreign animal, glossed with Latin panthera.^[23][19]

Semantic evolution

López de Gómara in 1554 counts onças among the beasts kept in Moctezuma's menagerie in Mexico.^[24] Autoridades describes a very swift quadruped with a spotted skin like the leopard's, and says Covarrubias took it for the female of the pardo.^[13] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 describes an animal from India that is tamed for hunting, with the scientific name Felis uncia.^[25] Wiktionary explains that this New Latin uncia, given to the snow leopard by Schreber in 1777, comes from French once under the influence of once “ounce”.^[1]

The DLE now gives it as a name of the cheetah, and Moliner of the snow leopard as well.^[4][16] In Spanish America it names other cats and even small carnivores: the jaguarundi in Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela, the jaguar in Bolivia, and the weasel in Mexico and Guatemala.^[4][26]

Timeline

• 1492 – first record, in Nebrija's Latin–Spanish Lexicon.^[23]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's Vocabulario calls it a foreign animal.^[23][19]
• 1554 – López de Gómara uses it for the cats of Moctezuma's menagerie.^[24]
• 1737 – Autoridades compares it to the leopard.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy describes an animal of India tamed for hunting.^[25]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin lynx.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The cheetah (guepardo).^[4][16][1]
2. The snow leopard (Panthera uncia).^[16]
3. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela) The jaguarundi (jaguarundí).^[4][26]
4. (Mexico, Guatemala) The weasel (comadreja).^[4][26]
5. (Bolivia) The jaguar.^[26][1]
6. (Mexico) A big cat of Mexican folklore, not known to science.^[1]