Etymologically
Log in

polvo

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the Spanish word polvo

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1200 Almerich, La fazienda de Ultra Mar, in a 13th-century copy More words from the 12th century
Inherited from
Latin *pulvus via Old Spanish
Ultimate origin
Latin pulvis

Pronunciation

  • /ˈpolbo/, [ˈpol.β̞o][1]

Forms

polvo m (plural polvos)[1] Old Spanish at first used polvos as a singular (el polvos), still found in the Poema de Fernán González; it was later felt as a plural (los polvos), and the new singular polvo is already the only form in the manuscripts of Berceo.[2] Old Spanish texts spell it poluo, polvo, polbo and in the plural poluos, polbos.[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish polvos, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pulvus (“dust”), a neuter remodelling of pulvis (“dust”), which in classical Latin was usually masculine and more rarely feminine.[2][4][5][1] Corominas explains the new stem by the model of neuters such as opus and onus.[2] The Vulgar Latin neuter is not recorded, but the variant pulver is attested as a neuter, and so are the diminutive pulvisculum and a plural form.[2]

The same Vulgar Latin noun gave Catalan pols, Occitan pols and Old French pous, and through a variant without /v/, *pulus, Portuguese pó and Galician po.[2][6][7][8] Asturian polvu has the Spanish form.[9] Romanian pulbere, Italian polvere and Sardinian prúere continue instead the classical stem with -er-.[2][6] The plural *pulvera gave Catalan pólvora “dust, powder”, from which the word pólvora “gunpowder” was borrowed about 1350.[2][4]

The Latin noun is traditionally derived from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“flour, dust”), beside pollen.[1][10] De Vaan prefers a form *pelH-u- (“chaff”), the source of palea (“chaff”), but notes that “dust” and “chaff” are hard to connect.[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest hit in the CDH is in Almerich's Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy); the first one without a later copy, in the Semejanza del mundo (c. 1223), is the plural poluos for a medicinal powder mixed with vinegar to anoint wounds.[12][3] Corominas's first record is Berceo's Vida de San Millán, where God raises the saint del polvo “from the dust”, and Corominas dates the word to 1220–1250.[2][4][12]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word already names dust raised by the wind, the fine residue of a ground substance, dust settling on walls, and ashes: the Estoria de España tells of a wind so strong that tan grand fue el poluo que fizo con aquel uiento que semeiaua fumo “so great was the dust the wind raised that it looked like smoke”.[13] The plural polvos was used for pharmaceutical and cosmetic powders, as in Juan Ruiz's con polvos e afeytes “with powders and make-up”, and the plural has stayed in this sense.[2][14]

Covarrubias records the proverb de aquellos polvos vienen estos lodos “that dust has made this mud” and the phrase sacudir a uno el polvo “to give someone a beating”.[15] The Academy listed special powders, among them the polvos de Juanes, a red mercury precipitate named after the surgeon Juan de Vigo.[16][5] In the 20th century the word took the vulgar sense “sexual intercourse”, mainly in the phrase echar un polvo;[5][17][18] Corriente thinks it probably translates a Morisco expression in Andalusian Arabic meaning “to win a vulva”.[5][17][18] In the language of drugs it means heroin, and in the Dominican Republic cocaine.[5][19]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – the earliest hit in the CDH, in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).[12]
  • c. 1223 – the Semejanza del mundo uses poluos for a medicinal powder.[12]
  • 1220–1250 – Corominas's date for the first record, in Berceo.[4][2]
  • 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses poluos for the ashes of the cremated dead.[13]
  • c. 1350 – the borrowing pólvora “gunpowder” appears, in the Poema de Alfonso XI.[2][4]
  • c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin puluer or puluis as its equivalent.[20]
  • 1532 – the first records from the Americas, in Mexico, including oro en polvos “gold dust”.[21]
  • 1596 – the derivative polvareda is first recorded.[2][4]
  • 1611 – Covarrubias records de aquellos polvos vienen estos lodos.[15]
  • 1843 – the Academy lists the polvos de Juanes and the polvos de cartas used to dry ink.[16]

Meanings

Noun

  1. dust: the finest loose part of very dry earth, which rises into the air with any movement: Los caballos dejaban tras de sí una nube de polvo amarillo.[5][1]
  2. powder: what is left of a solid ground into very small particles, as in leche en polvo “powdered milk”.[5][1]
  3. A pinch: as much of a powdered substance as can be taken between the thumb and the forefinger.[5][14]
  4. The fine particles that float in the air and settle on things: Hay que quitar el polvo de las estanterías.[5]
  5. (colloquial, vulgar) An act of sexual intercourse, mainly in echar un polvo.[5][1]
  6. (slang) Heroin; in the Dominican Republic, cocaine.[5][19]
  7. (in the plural) Face powder and other powder cosmetics.[5][14]
  8. (Venezuela) Luck, chance.[22]

Word family

  • espolvorear
  • polvorón
  • polvoroso
  • polvorín
  • polvoriento
  • polvareda
  • empolvar
  • guardapolvo
  • polvera
  • desempolvar
  • pulverizar
  • pulverulento
  • Latin pulvis
  • Portuguese pó
  • Catalan pols

Usage notes

Set phrases include estar hecho polvo “to be worn out”, hacer polvo “to destroy, crush” and morder el polvo “to bite the dust”.[23][1] The plural keeps the old use for medicines and cosmetics: polvos de talco “talcum powder”.[14][1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 599
  3. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. polvo
  4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. polvo
  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. polvo
  6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6842
  7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5280
  8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2625
  9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. polvo
  10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  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. polvo
  13. ^ 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. polvo
  14. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. polvo
  15. ^ 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. 1221
  16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 574
  17. ^ a b Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 413
  18. ^ a b Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. polvo
  19. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. polvo
  20. ^ 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. polvo
  21. ^ 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. polvo
  22. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. polvo
  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. 629

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Polvo.” Etymologically, 7 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/es/polvo. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·