plantación

Forms

plantación f (plural plantaciones)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin plantātiō (“planting, propagation”).^[2][1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of plantar, which he dates to 1148, without a date of its own.^[3][4]

The Latin noun is formed from plantō (“to plant”) with the suffix -tiō, and the verb from planta (“sole of the foot; cutting, shoot”).^[5][1][4] The same Latin word gave Portuguese plantação, Catalan plantació, French plantation and Italian piantagione.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hits are lease charters of the monastery of Oña from 1264 on, which leave the land to the monastery con quantas plantaçiones et con quantos arboles pusierdes “with all the plantings and trees you set”: the word means the plantings made on leased land.^[7] DEMel's first primary records are the Fuero de Cuenca (1284–1295) and Leonese documents of 1299.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defines it as the act of planting, and quotes it also in a figurative use, the founding of a new religious house.^[9] The Academy added in 1884 the sense “whatever has been planted”.^[10] In the Americas the word is recorded from 1509, in Santo Domingo.^[11] A colonial sense, an estate where settlers clear the land and grow sugar cane or tobacco, was noted as an americanism by a 19th-century dictionary, though Santamaría did not know it in Mexico.^[12] The modern DLE gives the farm or estate and the land where plants of one kind are grown.^[2] In Puerto Rico it can be a marijuana planting.^[13]

Timeline

• 1264 – plantaçiones in a lease charter of the monastery of Oña.^[7]
• 1284–1295 – the Fuero de Cuenca has plantaçion.^[8]
• 1509 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[11]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines it as the act of planting.^[9]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the sense “all that has been planted”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act or result of planting (plantar).^[2][14]
2. A plantation, an estate; all that has been planted.^[2][1]
3. Land on which plants of a single kind are grown: una plantación de café.^[2][14]
4. (Puerto Rico) A planting of marihuana.^[13]

Related words

• plantar
• planta
• plantío
• Latin plantātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. plantación
3. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. planta
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 572
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. plantação
7. ^ 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. plantación
8. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. plantación
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. plantación
10. ^ a b 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
11. ^ 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. plantación
12. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 868
13. ^ 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. plantación
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. plantación