pergamino

Forms

pergamino m (plural pergaminos)^[1] Old Spanish had both pergamino and pargamino;^[2] Nebrija preferred pargamino, which was still used in the 16th century.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pergamino, inherited from Late Latin pergamīnum, a late form of Latin pergamēna.^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek περγαμηνή (pergamēnḗ), properly the feminine of the adjective meaning “of Pergamon”, the city in Asia Minor where these skins were prepared for writing.^[3][4][5] The city's name is Ancient Greek Πέργαμος (Pérgamos).^[6] The /i/ for Greek ē reflects the pronunciation of Hellenistic and later Greek.^[3] Nascentes explains the late Latin form as a cross between the classical word and the Greek one with its /i/.^[7]

The same late Latin word is Portuguese pergaminho, Galician pergameo, Asturian pargamin and Catalan pergamí.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit is the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy), where a written message is read como si fuessen en pargamino, “as if they were on parchment”.^[10] Corominas dates the word from Berceo (1220–1250).^[3][4] In Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo a blind man cannot make out the pargamino because it was badly written in obscure Latin.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the word named the prepared skin used for writing and the written sheet itself.^[10] Alfonso X's Lapidario says that ink made with a certain stone gives fine, shining letters en pargamino.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 described it as the skin of a beast cleaned, scraped, stretched and dressed, harder than paper and used for privileges and important documents, and said it was invented in Pergamon.^[12] Autoridades quoted Pedro Mexía, who attributed the invention, after Varro, to the people of Pergamon under King Eumenes.^[13]

The Academy added the sense “title or document written on parchment” in 1869.^[14] In the plural the word now means the noble ancestry of a family or person.^[5][15] In Mexico and Central America it is the thin husk around the coffee bean, and in Panama, Colombia and Ecuador the dried coffee bean in its husk.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – pargamino in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (14th-century copy).^[10][2]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses both pergamino and pargamino.^[3][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario.^[11]
• 1536 – first record in the Americas, at Lima.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the name from the city of Pergamon.^[12]
• 1737 – Autoridades has only the form pergamino.^[3][13]
• 1869 – the Academy adds “document written on parchment”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. parchment: the skin of an animal, cleaned of wool or hair, scraped, dressed and stretched, used for writing on, for binding books and other purposes.^[5][1]
2. A title or document written on parchment: En el archivo guardan pergaminos del siglo XII.^[5]
3. (in the plural) The noble ancestry of a family or person: una familia con muchos pergaminos.^[5][15]
4. (Mexico, Central America) The thin husk around the coffee bean, under the pulp.^[16][18]

Word family

• apergaminarse
• apergaminado
• pergaminero

Related words

• Portuguese pergaminho
• Latin pergamēna
• Ancient Greek περγαμηνή (pergamēnḗ)

Usage notes

En pergamino describes a book bound with parchment covers.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pergamino
3. ^ 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, 491
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pergamino
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. pergamino
6. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. pergaminho
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pergamenum
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2542
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. pergamino
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. pergamino
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. 1207
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 223
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 594
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pergamino
16. ^ 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. pergamino
17. ^ 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. pargamino
18. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. pergamino