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oveja

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Etymology and origin of the Spanish word oveja

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1090 an Aragonese charter in Oelschläger's list, spelt obellga More words from the 11th century
Inherited from
Latin ovicula via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Proto-Italic *owis

Pronunciation

  • /oˈbexa/, [oˈβ̞e.xa][1]

Forms

oveja f (plural ovejas)[1] Old Spanish texts write oueia, oveia, oueyas, obejas and, in the north and east, ouella and ovelias.[2][3] Dialect forms include uveja and gueja in Salamanca, oveya and oeya in Asturias and uella in Aragon.[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish oueja, inherited from Late Latin ovicula (“little sheep”), a diminutive of ovis (“sheep”).[5][6][7][1] The diminutive is common to the Romance languages of Gaul and Iberia, while the simple Latin word survives only in Romanian.[5] The same Latin word is Portuguese ovelha, Galician ovella, Asturian oveya and French ouaille, the last now used of a priest's flock.[4][8][9]

The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *owis.[10][1] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *h₂ówis, while de Vaan writes the root with the third laryngeal, *h₃eu-i-.[1][10] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ὄϊς (óïs), Lithuanian avìs and the English word ewe.[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form obellga, read obélla, in an Aragonese charter of 1090.[5][6] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has the Castilian form in a list of booty: muchos gañados de ovejas e de vacas “many flocks of sheep and herds of cows”.[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its meaning throughout; in some places borrega or the name of the male is now more popular.[5] Nebrija distinguished the fine-wooled oveja merina from the coarse oveja grossera or burdalla and the bare oveja lampiña.[5] Covarrubias in 1611 recorded the proverb Cada oveja con su pareja “each ewe with her mate”, which the Quijote also quotes.[12][13]

The Christian image of the faithful as sheep gave the figurative sense recorded by Terreros, and later oveja descarriada and oveja negra, the black sheep of a family.[14][15][7] The Academy's 1884 edition recorded the phrase encomendar las ovejas al lobo “to entrust the sheep to the wolf”.[16]

In the Americas the Spaniards applied the word to the native camelids: in 1528 a writer on the Río de la Plata mentions obejas salvajes as big as a yearling mule, and Autoridades says the ovejas of Chile are pack animals like small camels.[17][18] The Academy long gave oveja as a Chilean word for the llama, which Román rejected.[16][19] In Argentina it has been used of a woman of the streets, and in Cuba of a very submissive person.[20][21] Quechua borrowed the word as Quechua uwija.[1]

Timeline

  • 1090 – obellga in an Aragonese charter.[5][6]
  • c. 1140 – ovejas in the Cantar de mio Cid.[3]
  • 1224 – first record of the derivative ovejuno.[6]
  • 1515 – first record from the Americas, in Tierra Firme.[17]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records Cada oveja con su pareja.[12]
  • 1726–1739 – Autoridades describes the ovejas of Chile.[18]
  • 1884 – the Academy records encomendar las ovejas al lobo.[16]
  • 1917 – Alemany gives the etymology as ovicula, diminutive of ovis.[22]

Meanings

Noun

  1. sheep: the medium-sized ruminant kept for its wool, meat and milk: Las ovejas pastaban junto al río.[7][1]
  2. A ewe, the female sheep, as opposed to the carnero.[7]
  3. (South America) The llama.[23]
  4. (Cuba) A very submissive, passive person.[21]

Word family

  • ovejero
  • ovejuno
  • Latin ovis
  • Portuguese ovelha

Usage notes

Set phrases include oveja negra “black sheep”, a member who compares badly with the rest of a family or small group, and encomendar las ovejas al lobo “to put something in the care of the one who will ruin it”.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. oveja
  3. ^ 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. oveja
  4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4727
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 324
  6. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oveja
  7. ^ 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. oveja
  8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2428
  9. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. oveja
  10. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. ovis
  11. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 514
  12. ^ 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. 1181
  13. ^ 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. s.v. oveja
  14. ^ 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, 732
  15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oveja
  16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 769
  17. ^ a b 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. oveja
  18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 66
  19. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 90
  20. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 602
  21. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. oveja
  22. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1238
  23. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. oveja

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Oveja.” Etymologically, 13 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/oveja. Accessed 14 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·