pino

Forms

pino m (plural pinos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pīnus (“pine tree”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas notes that the word is common to all the Romance languages except Portuguese, which calls the tree pinheiro and keeps pinho for pine wood or a ship, while Galician has piñeiro beside pino.^[2] It is Catalan pi, French pin, Italian pino, Romanian pin and Asturian pinu, and the Aragonese of the Pyrenees has pin.^[5][6][1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: de Vaan considers the same base as Ancient Greek πίναξ (pínax, “wooden board, plank”) or the same root as πίτυς (pítus, “pine tree”), allows that it may be a non-Indo-European tree name, and finds a cluster such as *pik-sno-, linked with pix (“pitch, resin”), attractive in sense.^[7] The OLD suggests *pīt(s)-nos and compares the Greek word.^[8] Wiktionary derives it ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *poi- (“sap, juice”), and notes the English cognate pine.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest Spanish records are place and personal names: Pino near Oña in a charter of 1085, and Corominas's proper name of the second half of the 12th century.^[9][2][10] As a common noun the word is in the Libro de los animales de caza (Moamín) of 1250.^[11] The Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy) has enderecó la lança de nervio e de pino “he aimed the lance of sinew and pine”,^[10] and Alfonso X's Picatrix (1256) prescribes a fumigation con pez de pino “with pine pitch”.^[12] Corominas himself dates the common noun to Juan Ruiz.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias called it a well-known tree, very useful for building, and named the pino albar and pino rodeño.^[13] Autoridades described a tall, straight evergreen and, by synecdoche, a ship, quoting Villamediana's alado pino “winged pine”.^[14] The Academy's 1817 edition also had an adjective pino, pina “very steep or upright” and the noun for a child's first steps;^[15] the DLE now lists these under a second headword that it derives from the tree name.^[4] The DLE's other senses are pine wood, the handstand of hacer el pino and, in poetry, a ship.^[4]

The derivatives are old: pinar is in the Cid, pineda is from 1210 and pinaza from 1220–1250.^[2][3] In the Americas the word was applied to native conifers: in 1548 Santo Domingo a tree the Indians call coaba, and in 1575 Mexico a pine whose resin is called ocotzotl.^[16] Regional senses include an electricity pole in Andalusia, a range of wooden pegs and bars in Leonese, and a guitar in lunfardo.^[17][18] In Judeo-Spanish el pino is the summit of honours, and kaer del pino “to fall from the pine” is to fall from favour.^[19]

Timeline

• 1085 – the place name Pino in a charter of Oña.^[9]
• 2nd half of the 12th century – the word as a proper name, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the derivative pinar in the Cid.^[3]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre (in an early 15th-century copy).^[10]
• 1250 – the Libro de los animales de caza (Moamín).^[11]
• 1256 – the Picatrix speaks of pez de pino “pine pitch”.^[12]
• 1548 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias names the pino albar and pino rodeño.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records the adjective pino “steep, upright”.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin pinus and the poetic sense “ship”.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pine: a tall resinous conifer with needle-shaped evergreen leaves, whose fruit is the piña and whose seed is the piñón.^[4][21][1]
2. Pine wood: una mesa de pino.^[4]
3. A handstand, in the phrase hacer el pino.^[4][1]
4. (poetic) A ship.^[4][21]
5. (colloquial, usually plural) A child's or a convalescent's first steps: El niño ya da sus primeros pinos.^[4]

Adjective

1. Very steep or very upright: una escalera muy pina.^[4][15]

Word family

• pinar
• pinaza
• pineda
• pinocha
• pimpollo
• pinsapo
• empinar
• picapinos

Related words

• piñón
• Latin pīnus
• English pine

Usage notes

En el quinto pino means “very far away”.^[4] In Chile pino is the filling of minced meat and onion in empanadas;^[22][23] Lenz and Román derive this word from Mapudungun pinu “small bits of straw”.^[24][22]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 555
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pino
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. pino
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6519
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5047
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. pino
10. ^ 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. pino
11. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
12. ^ 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. pino
13. ^ 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. 1215
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 275
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 676
16. ^ a b 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. pino
17. ^ Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 486
18. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. pino
19. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. pino
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 832
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pino
22. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 299
23. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
24. ^ Lenz, Rodolfo (1904–1910), Diccionario etimolójico de las voces chilenas derivadas de lenguas indíjenas americanas, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta Cervantes, p. s.v. pino