península

Forms

península f (plural penínsulas)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin paenīnsula (“peninsula”).^[2][3][4] Wiktionary calls it inherited.^[1] The Latin word is a compound of paene (“almost”) and īnsula (“island”), the source of isla;^[5][1][6] Wiktionary credits Livy with it.^[5][1][6]

The same Latin word was borrowed as French péninsule, Italian penisola, Catalan península and Portuguese península.^{[7][8][9][10]} De Vaan finds no clear origin for the Latin adverb.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Nebrija (c. 1495) has the Latin word peninsula only as the equivalent of Spanish isla casi “almost an island”.^[12][13] The Spanish word is first used by Bartolomé de las Casas, who explains that cosmographers call such land península, que quiere decir cuasi isla “península, which means almost an island”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word stayed a geographers' term, and Corominas's Breve diccionario dates it only to 1611.^[3] The Academy's 1817 dictionary defines it as land surrounded by water and joined to the mainland on one side only.^[14] Salvá (1846) adds that it usually means the peninsula of Spain and Portugal, and in Spain la Península still means mainland Spain or the Iberian Peninsula.^[15][1] The 1899 edition first gives the etymology from Latin paene and insula.^[16] In Guatemala and El Salvador península is a euphemism for a prison.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin peninsula for isla casi.^[12]
• 1527–1550 – Bartolomé de las Casas uses península and explains it as cuasi isla.^[12]
• 1554 – López de Gómara uses it of a province of the Indies.^[12]
• 1611 – the date in Corominas's Breve diccionario.^[3]
• 1689 – first record in the Americas, from Guatemala.^[18]
• 1817 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[14]
• 1846 – Salvá notes that the word usually means Spain and Portugal.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A peninsula: land surrounded by water and joined to a larger mass of land by a narrow neck (istmo): la península de Yucatán.^[2][1]
2. (Spain, with the article, often capitalised) Mainland Spain; the Iberian Peninsula.^[1][15]
3. (Guatemala, El Salvador, euphemistic) A prison.^[17]

Word family

• peninsular

Related words

• isla
• ínsula
• penumbra
• penúltimo
• Latin paenīnsula

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. península
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. isla
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. península
5. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 536
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. península
9. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. península
10. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 529
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ 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. península
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 293
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 658
15. ^ a b c Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 824
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 762
17. ^ 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. península
18. ^ 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. península