piedra

Forms

piedra f (plural piedras)^[1] The charters write pietra in 1042 and piedra from 1074.^[2] Medieval texts also show pedra and pyedras, and a charter of the late 11th century from Fanlo has the Latin petras.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin petra (“rock, stone”), Old Spanish piedra.^[2][4][5][1] Latin had borrowed the word from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”).^[2][1][6] The Greek loan occurs in the earliest Latin writers, but the classical authors avoided it in favour of saxum; in spoken Latin it spread early, already with the sense “stone”, and it replaced lapis, of which Romance keeps hardly a trace.^[2] The charter of 1042 already has the diphthong ie in pietra, with the /t/ before /r/ not yet voiced; the voiced form follows in 1074.^[2] In place names, where the word stood unstressed as the first element of a compound, it was often reduced to ⟨Pera-⟩, as in the place name Peralta.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese pedra, Galician pedra, Asturian piedra, Catalan pedra, Occitan peira, French pierre, Italian pietra and Romanian piatră.^[7][8][1]

The Greek word has no accepted etymology;^[1] Beekes prefers to see it as a borrowing from a pre-Greek language, and finds Meier-Brügger's derivation from Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to go through”) semantically implausible.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are charters: pietra in 1042 and piedra in 1074.^[2][4] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy) uses it in a prayer that recalls the miracles of Christ: „del agua fezist vino e de la piedra pan” “of water you made wine, and of stone bread”.^[9] The Liber regum (c. 1194–1211) already has the phrase no i iexaron piedra sobre piedra “they left no stone upon stone” about the destruction of Jerusalem.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word names the hard mineral matter itself, a stone in the bladder and a milestone on a Roman road.^[10] Covarrubias in 1611 lists precious stones and the touchstone, and proverbs that are still current, such as tirar la piedra y esconder la mano “to throw the stone and hide one's hand” and matar dos pájaros con una piedra “to kill two birds with one stone”; in the kingdom of Toledo a foundling was called niño de la piedra, after a stone in the cathedral where babies were left.^[11]

The Diccionario de Autoridades adds the flint of a firearm, quoting a tariff of 1680, and the stone that forms in the kidneys, the mal de piedra.^[12][12] In 1817 the Academy also recorded large hailstones, the place where foundlings were left and the points won in a game.^[13] The modern dictionary adds the small iron-cerium flint of a cigarette lighter.^[5] Cervantes's señalar con piedra blanca “to mark a day with a white stone” follows the Roman custom of marking happy days so.^[14][15]

In Mexico, Central America and Panama piedra is the drug crack, and in Cuba and Puerto Rico a tiresome, boring person.^[16][17]

Timeline

• 1042 – a charter has the form pietra.^[2][4]
• 1074 – the form piedra appears in a charter.^[2]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it (in a 14th-century copy).^[9][18]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario treats stones and metals as the hardest things made of earth.^[10]
• 1276–1279 – the sense “bladder stone” appears in the Alfonsine prose.^[10]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: piedra çufre “brimstone”.^[19]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “a stone”.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias collects proverbs with piedra.^[11]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the gunflint sense.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology “Del lat. petra” for the first time.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. stone: hard, compact mineral matter: Una muralla de piedra rodeaba el pueblo.^[5][1]
2. A piece of stone used in building.^[5][22]
3. A carved stone bearing an inscription or figure.^[5]
4. (medicine) A calculus in the bladder or kidneys.^[5][22]
5. A large hailstone.^[5][1]
6. In some games, a counter marking the points won.^[5]
7. The flint of a cigarette lighter, an alloy of iron and cerium.^[5][1]
8. A millstone.^[5]
9. (historical) The place where foundlings were left.^[5]
10. (historical) The flint of a flintlock firearm.^[5][12]
11. (Mexico, Central America, Panama, Venezuela) crack cocaine, or a piece of it.^[16][1]
12. (Cuba, Puerto Rico) A tiresome, boring person.^[17][16]

Word family

• pedrada
• pedregal
• pedregoso
• pedrisco
• pedrusco
• apedrear
• empedrar
• empedrado
• pedrería
• pedrero
• pedrejón
• chupapiedras
• lanzapiedras

Related words

• Pedro
• pedroso
• pétreo
• pedernal
• petróleo
• Latin petra
• Portuguese pedra

Usage notes

Common set phrases include piedra angular “cornerstone”, piedra preciosa “precious stone”, poner la primera piedra “to lay the foundation stone” and no dejar piedra sobre piedra “to leave no stone standing”.^[23][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 534
3. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. piedra
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. piedra
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. piedra
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. petra
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6445
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. petra
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. piedra
10. ^ 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. piedra
11. ^ 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. 1213
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 265
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 673
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 874
15. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. piedra
16. ^ 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. piedra
17. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. piedra
18. ^ Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. 388
19. ^ 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. piedra
20. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 190
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 829
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. piedra
23. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 571