ortiga

Forms

ortiga f (plural ortigas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote fortiga and hortiga, and Nebrija, Covarrubias and others spelt the word hortiga until the Diccionario de Autoridades rejected the h.^[2][3] Aragonese has xordiga, chordiga, sordiga and jordiga, and Galician ortega.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ortiga, inherited from Latin urtīca (“nettle”).^[2][4][5][1] Corominas holds that the Old Spanish form fortiga was pronounced with an aspirate /h/, and explains it by the influence of fortis (“strong”), because of the plant's roughness;^[6] Gascon dialects still have the aspirate.^[2] The Aragonese forms with ⟨x⟩ owe it to the verb xordigar (“to sting”), from Vulgar Latin *exurticāre.^[2][6]

The same Latin word is Portuguese urtiga, Galician ortiga, Catalan ortiga, French ortie, Italian ortica and Romanian urzică.^[7][2] The /d/ of ordiga and of forms in Romanian and some Italian dialects is unexplained;^[1] Corominas does not rule out the influence of Ancient Greek ἀδίκη (adíkē, “nettle”).^[2]

The origin of the Latin word is unknown.^[2][1] The Romans connected it with ūrō (“to burn”), but that verb would have given a different form, so the link is a folk etymology.^[1][8] Corominas suggests a loan from the same Mediterranean language as the Greek word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy), which compares a rough skin to crushed nettles: com fortigas majadas atal es su pellejo.^[9][2] The other manuscript of the poem reads ortigas.^[2] The Libro de los caballos (c. 1275) prescribes nettle juice for a wound.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In medieval medicine and in Alfonso X's Moamín the nettle's juice, seeds and flowers were remedies for animals.^[10][9] Covarrubias (1611) listed its many healing uses after Dioscorides and recorded the saying más áspero que ortigas.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades recorded ser como unas ortigas, said of a harsh, disagreeable person.^[3] The name extends to other stinging plants and creatures: ortiga de mar is a jellyfish, and in Asturias and Galicia ortiga is the electric ray.^[5][2] In Cuba, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Chile it names several local stinging plants.^[12][13][14]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has fortigas in one manuscript and ortigas in the other.^[9][2]
• 1250 – Abraham of Toledo's Moamín uses nettle seed in a remedy.^[9]
• c. 1400 – first record of the verb ortigar “to sting with nettles”.^[2][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija spells the word hortiga.^[2][15]
• 1571 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias lists the plant's medical uses.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades rejects the spelling with h.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The nettle, a common herb of the nettle family whose toothed leaves are covered with hairs that release a stinging liquid.^[5][1][17]
2. ortiga de mar: a jellyfish (acalefo).^[5]
3. (Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile) Any of several local stinging plants.^[14]

Word family

• ortigar
• ortigal

Related words

• urticante
• urticaria
• urticáceo
• Latin urtīca

Usage notes

Ortiga muerta is the white dead-nettle, a plant of the mint family that does not sting.^[17][12] Ortiga is also a form of the verb ortigar “to sting with nettles”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 308
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 61
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ortiga
5. ^ a b c d 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. ortiga
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. urtica
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9090
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. urtica
9. ^ 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. ortiga
10. ^ 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. ortiga
11. ^ 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. 997
12. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1233
13. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 175
14. ^ 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. ortiga
15. ^ 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. ortiga
16. ^ 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. ortica
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ortiga