peño

Forms

peño m (plural peños)^[1] Old Spanish used it mostly in the plural, pennos, penos or peños, with the singular penno and Navarrese peynno.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish peños, inherited from Latin pignus (“pledge, security”).^[1][4][5] The same word is Italian pegno, Sardinian pinnus and Old Occitan penh,^[6] and Portuguese penhor continues the Latin oblique stem.^[7][8] From it Spanish formed empeñar “to pawn”, recorded as early as the noun.^[5]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain, according to de Vaan, who reconstructs *pegnos.^[9] Walde–Hofmann and Pokorny connect it with pingō “something fixed”, Knobloch with a word for an amount of cattle, and de Lamberterie with pangō (“to fix”), which de Vaan finds the most likely in meaning, though not certain.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the old plural peños “pledge” to about 1140.^[5] The Fuero de Alcalá (c. 1235) fines whoever takes a pledge without a neighbour as witness LX soldos e los peños duplados “sixty sueldos and the pledges doubled”.^[10] In the Fazienda de Ultramar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) Judah gives Tamar pennos: his ring, his belt and his staff.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to the language of law, in the phrases a peños and en peños “in pledge”.^[11][3] The Diccionario de Autoridades of 1737 already called it antiquated, a synonym of prenda.^[12] The sense “foundling”, said to be used in some places, is in the Academy's dictionary from 1843.^[13][14] The DLE now gives it first, with “pledge” marked obsolete.^[4] Echegaray proposed to explain it by peña, the stone on which children were left.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the date Corominas gives for peños “pledge”.^[5]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultramar uses pennos (in a 13th-century copy).^[10]
• 1218–1252 – a deed of gift, the earliest original text in the CDH, has de pennos “out of pledge”.^[10]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria has the singular penno.^[11]
• 1538 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City: en peños e por nombre de peños “in pledge and by way of pledge”.^[16]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls the word antiquated.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “foundling”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A foundling (expósito).^[4][1]
2. (obsolete) A pledge: something given or left as security.^[4][17]

Word family

• empeñar

Related words

• Latin pignus
• Portuguese penhor
• Italian pegno

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. peño
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5018
4. ^ 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. peño
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. empeñar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6490
7. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2526
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. penhor
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 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. peño
11. ^ 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. peño
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 208
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 549
14. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 825
15. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 760
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. peño
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. peño