peine

Forms

peine m (plural peines)^[1] Old Spanish wrote peyne; one manuscript of Juan Ruiz has peynde, and pende is recorded in old texts of Salamanca.^[2][3][4] Asturian has peñe and Aragonese piente.^[5][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish peyne, inherited from Latin pecten (“comb”), from the Latin accusative ⟨pectinem⟩.^[2][6][7][1] Corominas explains the Old Spanish forms from an intermediate stage in which the consonants met after the loss of the unstressed vowel: most areas simplified the group, which gave the standard form, while some areas transposed it and said peynde, the form of manuscript G of Juan Ruiz.^[2] The verb shows the same transposition more widely, as pendar (“to comb”) in the Libro de Alexandre, Leonese texts and 16th-century eclogues.^[2]

The same Latin noun is Portuguese pente, Galician peite, Old Occitan penche, French peigne and Italian pettine.^[2][4][1] The Portuguese, Catalan and Occitan forms without the loss of the middle vowel spread the nasal into the first syllable, from a variant *penctine.^[8][2] Catalan has the old masculine Catalan pinte beside the feminine pinta, which is already feminine in its first record, of 1249.^[8][2]

The Latin noun is formed on pectō (“to comb”), which de Vaan derives from Proto-Indo-European *peḱ-, with the noun from *p(e)tḱ-en-; its closest cognate is Ancient Greek κτείς (kteís, “comb”).^[9][1] In Latin it already named things shaped like a comb, such as the reed of a loom and a scallop, and also the hair of the groin.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), in a rule on weaving: Tantos filos sean en la una pua del peyne, como en la otra “let there be as many threads in one tooth of the comb as in the other”, that is, the weaver's reed.^[12] Alfonso X's Lapidario has the comb for the hair: & si despues en aquella agua moiaren el peyne & peynaren con el los cabellos; tinnense negros “and if they then wet the comb in that water and comb the hair with it, it is dyed black”.^[13][12] Corominas dates the word from the Libro de buen amor of Juan Ruiz.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts the word named both the comb for the hair and the toothed tools of the textile trades; the General Estoria compares teeth to the iron combs with which wool is worked.^[13] Nebrija gave a general sense, Latin pecten, and a separate “carder's comb”.^[14] Covarrubias in 1611 and the Autoridades recorded the hair comb, the carder's comb and the weaver's reed.^[15][16] The Academy added in 1817 an instrument with steel points used to torture the martyrs, and the instep of the foot.^[17] By 1884 the word was also used colloquially of a sly person, in a bad sense, which the current dictionary keeps as púa.^[18][7]

Later technical senses are the clip of a firearm and the gridiron above a theatre stage from which scenery hangs.^[7][19] Quevedo used hablar muy sobre peine for speaking haughtily, which Corominas links to the tall combs of the chulas.^[2] In Cuba it was a rake used by charcoal burners, and in Chile a worthless fellow.^[2] In Honduras and Cuba it is a search or sweep of an area, in El Salvador a police raid, and in Bolivia a skilled person or an unscrupulous one.^[20] In the Canaries it is the name of a small pink fish that buries itself in the sand.^[21]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes uses peyne for the weaver's reed.^[12]
• c. 1250 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has the comb for the hair.^[13][12]
• 1272–1275 – the General Estoria mentions iron combs for working wool.^[13]
• 1330–1343 – the Libro de buen amor, the DCECH's first record; one manuscript writes peynde.^[2][14]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin pecten and, for the carder's comb, carptorium.^[14]
• 1512 – the first record in the Americas, a dozen fine combs in Puerto Rico.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias adds the weaver's tool that presses the cloth.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – the Autoridades defines the hair comb, the carder's comb and the weaver's reed.^[16]
• 1817 – the Academy records the instrument of torture, the instep and the proverb peine encordado, cabello enhebrado.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology, from Latin pecten.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. comb: a toothed tool of wood, ivory, shell or other material for untangling and arranging the hair: Se pasó el peine antes de salir.^[7][1]
2. A card (carda) for combing wool.^[7]
3. (weaving) The reed of a loom, a bar with teeth between which the threads of the warp pass.^[7]
4. The clip of some firearms, a metal piece that holds a row of cartridges.^[7]
5. The instep (empeine) of the foot.^[7]
6. A spiked iron instrument formerly used for torture.^[7]
7. (colloquial, usually pejorative) A sly, crafty person: Ese chico es un buen peine.^[7][23]
8. (theatre) The gridiron above the stage, with pulleys from which the scenery is hung.^[7]
9. (Honduras, Cuba) A search or sweep of an area;^[20] (El Salvador) a police raid.^[20]

Word family

• peinazo
• peinero
• peineta
• peinería

Related words

• despeinar
• pendejo
• empeine
• pectíneo
• Latin pecten
• Portuguese pente

Usage notes

Lo que vale un peine is used, mostly with saber, aprender or enterarse, to warn someone of the bad consequences of what they are doing.^[7][23] A sobre peine, now rare, means lightly, without much care; it first meant cutting the hair only over the top.^[7][17]

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 Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 459
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. peine
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pecten
5. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. peñe
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. peine
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. peine
8. ^ a b 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), p. 6, 545
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. peine
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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. peine
13. ^ a b c d 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. peine
14. ^ a b c 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. peine
15. ^ 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. 1202
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 188
17. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 654
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 806
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. peine
20. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. peine
21. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. peine
22. ^ 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. peine
23. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. peine