plomo

Forms

plomo m (plural plomos)^[1] Old Spanish texts have plomo and, more rarely, plonmo and promo.^[2]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin plumbum (“lead”).^[3][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Portuguese chumbo, Galician chumbo, Asturian chombu, Aragonese plomo, Catalan plom, Occitan plom, French plomb, Italian piombo and Romanian plumb.^[6][7][3]

The initial ⟨pl⟩ is unexpected: in inherited words Castilian turns it into ⟨ll⟩, as in llano, and García de Diego notes that no Castilian form with ⟨ll⟩ is found, while the Portuguese and Galician forms show the regular development.^[7][3][1] Meyer-Lübke took the Spanish word for a loan from Catalan, and Cuervo thought it might come from Aragonese.^[6][3] Corominas holds both possible and says more evidence is needed.^[3] He thinks a Mozarabic origin unlikely, since Mozarabic would have kept the ⟨mb⟩, although most Spanish lead today comes from Almería; before the reconquest of Almería, he suggests, lead may have come from Aragon or Catalonia, where it is mined.^[3] He does not rule out a conservative pronunciation of the upper classes for the name of a metal, but rejects Cuervo's idea that the following /m/ preserved the /p/ by assimilation.^[3] Wiktionary adds the possibility that it is a semi-learned word taken early from Latin.^[1] Portuguese also has the learned prumo (“plumb line”).^[8]

The Latin word was traditionally compared with Ancient Greek μόλυβδος (mólubdos, “lead”), a link that de Vaan, after Beekes, rejects.^[9][10][1] De Vaan connects it rather with a Celtic word for lead, Wiktionary's Proto-Celtic *ɸloudom, but since the two cannot be derived from one Indo-European form, both are probably loans from another language.^[9][1] Boutkan and Kossmann point to a Berber word for lead.^[9][1] The Academy calls the Latin word one of Hispanic origin, and the DHLF a loan from a Mediterranean language, perhaps Iberian, since lead came from Spain.^[5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in a Spanish text kept in its original is a pact of friendship of 1242, which mentions a king's seello de plomo “lead seal”.^[12] Corominas's first date is 1243, in a document published by Menéndez Pidal, and he also cites the Libro de Apolonio (c. 1240, in a 14th-century copy), where a character escriuyó en hun plomo con hun grafio d'azero letras “wrote letters on a sheet of lead with a steel stylus”.^[3][4][12]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word named the metal, as in Alfonso X's Lapidario (a stone en su peso semeia al plomo “is as heavy as lead”), and also a weight of lead, as in his astronomical works of 1277.^[13] Nebrija gave both the metal and the mason's plomo, the plumb line.^[3] Covarrubias (1611) explained estar a plomo la pared “the wall stands plumb” by the small lead weight at the end of the mason's cord, and desplomada for a wall out of true.^[14]

The Autoridades (1737) added any piece of lead, such as weights or the sinkers of nets, and by metonymy bullets, with a quotation from Calderón.^[15] The Academy's 1817 edition recorded the colloquial sense of a tiresome person, said in es un plomo.^[16] In the 19th century plomo was also the lead seal put on cloth at factories and customs.^[17] Modern Spain uses the plural plomos for the fuses of an electric circuit.^[5][18] In much of Latin America plomo is also an adjective, “lead-grey”, and in Mexico it can mean a gunfight.^[19][20][21]

Timeline

• c. 1240 – the Libro de Apolonio (in a 14th-century copy) uses plomo for a writing tablet.^[12]
• 1242 – seello de plomo in a pact of friendship.^[12]
• 1243 – Corominas's first record.^[3][4]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario names the metal and gives its Latin and Arabic names.^[13]
• 1277 – plomo for a weight in Alfonso X's astronomical books.^[13]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia has the derived plomada.^[4]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, on refining silver with lead.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records estar a plomo.^[14]
• 1737 – the Autoridades adds the senses “weight, sinker” and “bullets”.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy records the sense “tiresome person”.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. lead: the metallic chemical element of atomic number 82 (symbol Pb), bluish grey, heavy, soft, ductile and resistant to corrosion, found in galena.^[5][18][1]
2. A plomada, the weight of a plumb line.^[5][1]
3. A piece of lead put on nets and other things to weigh them down; a sinker.^[5][15]
4. A bullet of a firearm; bullets collectively.^[5][1]
5. (colloquial) A tiresome or boring person or thing: Esa conferencia fue un plomo.^[5][18][1]
6. (in the plural) The fuses of an electric circuit.^[5][18]

Adjective

1. (Latin America) Lead-grey in colour.^[19][20][23]

Word family

• plomada
• plomero
• plomería
• plomizo
• plomoso
• aplomar
• aplomo
• desplomar
• desplome
• emplomar

Related words

• plúmbeo
• plombagina
• Latin plumbum
• Portuguese chumbo
• Catalan plom

Usage notes

A plomo means “vertically”, and with caer “heavily, with the whole weight”;^[18][24][25] con pies de plomo “with leaden feet” means “very cautiously” and is already in Cervantes.^[18][24][25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. plomo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 582
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. plomo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. plomo
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6615
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5112
8. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. prumo
9. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. plumbum
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. plomb
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. plomo
13. ^ 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. plomo
14. ^ 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. 1219
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, 301
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 684
17. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 857
18. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. plomo
19. ^ 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. plomo
20. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 671
21. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 871
22. ^ 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. plomo
23. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 391
24. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 571
25. ^ a b 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. 883