paño

Forms

paño m (plural paños)^[1] Old Spanish texts spell it panno, pannos, paño, panos and, in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, panyo.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pannus (“piece of cloth, rag”).^[4][5][6][1] The word was inherited by all the western Romance languages, but the wider Spanish sense “cloth” is shared only by Portuguese and Italian: Portuguese pano, Galician pano and Italian panno.^[4][7] Catalan pany and French pan kept the Latin sense “piece of cloth” or specialised it, and use drap and drap for “cloth”.^[4][8] The English word pane is a cognate.^[1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[9][1] It may be related to Ancient Greek πῆνος (pênos, “woven cloth”) and to Germanic words for a cloth or banner such as Gothic 𐍆𐌰𐌽𐌰 (fana) and Old High German fano; if so, de Vaan holds, they are loanwords from an unknown source, since their variation between short and long /a/ and between /n/ and /nn/ cannot go back to one Indo-European form.^[9][1] Kroonen, as Wiktionary reports, reconstructs instead a root Proto-Indo-European *peh₂n- (“fabric”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) has it of the costly cloths that hang in a palace: tanta pórpola e tanto xamed e tanto paño preciado “so much purple and samite and so much precious cloth”.^[3][5][4]

Semantic evolution

Already in Alfonso X's prose paño meant cloth of linen or wool, a wall hanging, a piece of cloth used to cover the face, and a dark spot on the skin.^[10] The Latin sense “piece, stretch” survived in paño de pared (1633) and paño de tierra “stretch of wall, of land”: the Academy marks them as old-fashioned in Spain, but they live on in Cuba and Argentina.^[4] In Chile paño is a stretch of land.^[11][12]

Covarrubias in 1611 defined it as the woollen fabric we dress in, and gave the proverb descubrir la hilaza, como mal paño “to show the thread, like poor cloth”.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as woollen cloth and by extension any fabric of silk, linen or cotton, and also as the width of a fabric.^[14] Terreros noted its nautical use for the sails a ship carries.^[15] The Academy's edition of 1843 added the tapestry, the piece of linen for dressing wounds, the dark spot on the face, a film over the eye and the dull patch on mirrors and gems.^[16]

In parts of Latin America paño is a towel (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Venezuela) or a handkerchief (rural Mexico).^[17][6] Spanish lent the word to French pagne and to the languages of the Philippines, as Tagalog panyo.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid, the first record.^[3][5]
• c. 1215 – panyo de lana “woollen cloth” in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it for cloth and for a dark spot on the face.^[10]
• c. 1335 – first record of the diminutive pañizuelo;^[18] pañuelo follows in 1570.^[5]
• c. 1400 – first record of pañal “nappy”.^[5]
• 1513 – the first record from the Americas, paño de pared in Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as woollen cloth.^[13]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary lists the tapestry, the spot on the skin and the film on the eye.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin pannus.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A thick, closely woven woollen cloth whose nap is shorter the finer the fabric.^[6][20]
2. Cloth of any kind of thread.^[6][1]
3. The width of a fabric, when several pieces are sewn side by side; a panel: una falda de cuatro paños.^[6][20]
4. A tapestry or other wall hanging.^[6]
5. A square or oblong cloth used in the kitchen to dry dishes or for other tasks; a wipe.^[6][1]
6. A piece of linen or other cloth.^[6]
7. A dark spot that changes the natural colour of the skin, especially on the face.^[6][21]
8. (medicine) A membranous growth spreading from the inner corner of the eye over the cornea.^[6]
9. A dull patch that lessens the shine or transparency of something.^[6]
10. A coat of plaster or stucco on a wall.^[6]
11. A stretch of wall.^[6][20]
12. (architecture) A severy, the panel of a vault (plemento).^[6]
13. (nautical) The sails a ship has spread.^[6][15]
14. (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Venezuela) A towel.^[6][12]

Word family

• pañal
• pañero
• pañete
• pañuelo
• pañizuelo
• pañolón
• empañar
• entrepaño
• apañar

Related words

• pañoso
• panículo
• Latin pannus
• Portuguese pano
• English pane

Usage notes

Set phrases include paños calientes “half measures”, paño de lágrimas “a shoulder to cry on”, en paños menores “in one's underclothes” and conocer el paño “to know the business”.^[1][20] Chile says paños tibios for paños calientes.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. paño
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. paño
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 380
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paño
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. paño
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6304
8. ^ 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)
9. ^ 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
10. ^ a b 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. paño
11. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 400
12. ^ 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. paño
13. ^ 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. 1190
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 110
15. ^ a b 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. 3, 26
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 529
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
18. ^ 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. pagño
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 737
20. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. paño
21. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. paño