piña

Forms

piña f (plural piñas)^[1] Alfonso X's Lapidario spells it pinna.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish piña, inherited from Latin pīnea (“pine cone”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin noun is the feminine of pīneus (“of pine”), from pīnus (“pine”);^[6][5][1] Wiktionary explains it as short for nux pīnea (“pine nut”).^[6][5][1]

The word survives in Ibero-Romance, Occitan and Italian dialects: Portuguese pinha, Galician piña, Catalan pinya, Occitan pinha and Italian pigna.^[3][1] De Vaan finds several explanations possible for the Latin tree name: a link with Ancient Greek πίτυς (pítus, “pine”), a non-Indo-European tree name, or a derivative with a lost consonant cluster beside pix (“pitch”), which fits the resin of pines.^[7]

The sense “pineapple” arose in the Americas, from the likeness of the fruit to a pine cone, as in English pineapple.^[3][1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279) compares the shape of a stone to a pine cone: como en figura de pinna “as in the shape of a pine cone”.^[2] Corominas's first record is Juan Ruiz's Libro de buen amor (1330–1343): más traes neçios locos que ay piñones en piñas “you lead more mad fools than there are pine nuts in pine cones”.^[3][4][9]

Semantic evolution

Nebrija, around 1495, distinguished the piña de piñones from the cone that splits open on the tree.^[10] In 1519 Fernández de Enciso applied the word to the American fruit: ay vna fruta q se llama piñas q son dela fechura de piñas sino q son mayores “there is a fruit called piñas, which have the shape of pine cones but are larger”.^[11][3] Peter Martyr had already compared the fruit to a pine cone in Latin around 1510, and Oviedo described the plant in 1526.^[8]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave both fruits, mentioned a drink made from the pineapple, chicha de piña, and called plata de piña or piña a mass of silver left in a mould after the mercury was driven off.^[12] Other senses come from the shape or the close packing of the cone: “maize cob” in Albacete, and “close group”, as in hacer piña “to close ranks”; from this last came piño “herd of cattle” in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia.^[3][4] In Cuba estar en la piña is to be in a difficult position, from the sharp leaves of the pineapple field.^[3]

In the Canaries piña was a cone-shaped sweet of almonds, recorded from 1689.^[13] In the Philippines it names a fine cloth woven from pineapple fibre.^[5] Spanish American uses include the rack of balls in billiards (Mexico, Honduras), the cylinder of a revolver (Mexico) and bad luck (Peru).^[14]

Timeline

• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has pinna “pine cone”.^[2]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz writes of piñones en piñas.^[3][9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives piña de piñones.^[10]
• 1519 – Fernández de Enciso uses piñas for the pineapple.^[11][3]
• 1526 – Oviedo describes the pineapple plant.^[8]
• 1536 – piñas are listed among the fruits of an orchard in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the fruit of the pine in which the pine nuts grow.^[16]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades gives the pine cone, the pineapple and the silver mass.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pine cone, the fruit of the pine and of other conifers.^[5][1]
2. The pineapple, Ananas comosus, and its fruit: De postre tomamos piña con yogur.^[5][1][17]
3. A maize cob, especially without its husk.^[5][1]
4. A close-knit group of people or things: Los vecinos hicieron piña contra la obra.^[5][1]
5. (Philippines) A fine, translucent cloth woven from the fibres of pineapple leaves.^[5]
6. (mining) A spongy cone of silver left in the mould after the mercury is distilled off.^[5][12]
7. (nautical) A rounded knot made with the unlaid strands of a rope's end.^[5]
8. (regional) A punch or blow with the fist; a fight.^[3][14][1]

Word family

• apiñar
• piñal
• piñazo
• piñón

Related words

• pino
• pineal
• Latin pīnus
• Portuguese pinha

Usage notes

Wiktionary treats piña “punch” as a separate word, a back-formation from piñata.^[1] Corominas instead counts it among the secondary senses of piña, beside Catalan pinya with the same meaning.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. piña
3. ^ 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, 555
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pino
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. piña
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. 549
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b c Friederici, Georg (1947), Amerikanistisches Wörterbuch, Hamburg: Cram, de Gruyter, p. 505
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. piña
10. ^ a b 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. piña
11. ^ a b Grupo IATEXT, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, AMERLEX: corpus of americanisms in early texts on the Americas (online database), p. s.v. piña
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 278
13. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. piña
14. ^ 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. piña
15. ^ 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. piña
16. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1215
17. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. piña