planeta

Forms

planeta m (plural planetas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin planēta (“planet”), from Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs, “wanderer”), a derivative of πλανάω (planáō, “to wander”).^[2][3][4][1] The planets were named “wanderers” in contrast with the stars, which seemed fixed.^[2][5] The Greek noun is the verb with the agent suffix -της (-tēs).^[1] Lewis and Short call the Latin noun a late word, replacing the classical phrases for “wandering stars”.^[6]

The same Latin word is Catalan planeta, Portuguese planeta, French planète and Italian pianeta.^[7][8][9][1]

The name of the church vestment is the same Latin word: Corominas takes it from Medieval Latin, where it was a name of the chasuble, which Papias explained by its loose, “wandering” skirts.^[2][10][11] DICCA-XV instead derives the vestment from Catalan, from the noun Catalan plana.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the first record to the Setenario of about 1250.^[2][3] The CDH has an earlier passage in the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), which explains that the stars that wander in their course have the name planeta in Latin.^[13] In Alfonso X's Lapidario it is one of the seven heavenly bodies that were believed to circle the Earth: la planeta que dizen mars “the planet they call Mars”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish made the word feminine, as in las siete planetas of the Libro de Alexandre and in the Libro del Acedrex of 1288; the classical authors quoted by Autoridades and the Quijote already treat it as masculine.^[2][13] Catalan likewise used it mostly as a feminine in the Middle Ages.^[7] In the Libro de buen amor it means “destiny”, a sense that had gone by the time of Covarrubias and Autoridades but lives on in Catalan.^[2]

Alfonso X's astrological works speak of watery, masculine and feminine planets.^[14] The Diccionario de Autoridades still counted seven planets, Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, which gave their names to the days of the week.^[15] Terreros noted that some astronomers counted sixteen by adding the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn.^[16] The modern definition, a body without light of its own orbiting a star, has replaced the Ptolemaic one, which the 2001 dictionary still kept as a separate sense.^[4][17] By antonomasia el planeta is now the Earth.^[4]

The sense “chasuble” is recorded from the first half of the 16th century, in Castillejo.^[2] In thieves' cant planeta meant “candle”, according to Juan Hidalgo's vocabulary.^[15]

Timeline

• c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo explains the Latin name planeta.^[13]
• c. 1250 – the Setenario, the first record for Corominas.^[2][3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario and astrological works use it often.^[14][18]
• 1288 – the Libro del Acedrex uses it as a feminine.^[2]
• first half of the 16th century – Castillejo uses it for the chasuble.^[2]
• 1538 – the first record from the Americas, in New Granada, of the Sun and the Moon.^[19]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades lists the seven planets and the vestment.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the Greek etymology.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. planet: a celestial body without light of its own that orbits a star, especially one orbiting the Sun: Marte es el cuarto planeta.^[4][1]
2. (by antonomasia) The Earth: Hay que cuidar el planeta.^[4]
3. (feminine; religion) A kind of chasuble whose front panel is shorter than usual.^[4][21]

Word family

• planetario
• interplanetario

Related words

• Latin planēta
• Ancient Greek πλανήτης (planḗtēs)
• Catalan planeta
• French planète

Usage notes

In the sense “planet” the word is masculine (el planeta), while the vestment is feminine (la planeta).^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 572
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. planeta
4. ^ 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. planeta
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. planète
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 587
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2606
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
11. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
12. ^ 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. planeta
13. ^ 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. planeta
14. ^ 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. planeta
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 288
16. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 152
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. planeta
18. ^ 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, p. s.v. planeta
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. planeta
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. 838
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 787