poniente

Forms

poniente m or f (masculine and feminine plural ponientes)^[1]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin pōnēns (“setting”), the present participle of pōnō (“to put, place”), which in Spanish, as ponerse, is also said of the sun going down.^[2][1][3] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of poner, and the Academy explained it from 1884 as the part of the sky where the sun sets.^[4][5][6] The learned ponente, recorded from 1737, is the same Latin participle.^[5][1]

The same word is Portuguese poente and Catalan ponent.^[7] Medieval Latin also used the participle for the west, like French ponant.^[8]

The Latin verb continues *pozinō, a compound of *po (“off, away”) and *sinō (“to put in place”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in the form ponient: Jericho lay by the Jordan, “on its west”.^[9] The DEMel dates the same text 1200–1250 and also records there the adjective in al sol poniente “to the setting sun”.^[10] Corominas's date is the Primera crónica general of about 1275.^[4][5] Land records of Murcia (1257–1271) already use contra poniente “towards the west” to place plots.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose used the word for the west and for the west wind: the General estoria says the wind called ponient blows from the west and that in Castile it is also named fauonno.^[11] The sense “west wind” is recorded by Autoridades as a sailors' word, one of the four main winds of the Mediterranean compass rose.^[12] Covarrubias (1611) had the phrase de Oriente a Poniente “from one end of the world to the other”.^[13] In the thieves' cant of Juan Hidalgo (1609) poniente meant a hat, a sense the Academy kept until the end of the 19th century.^[14][12][15] In the Americas it appears from 1527, in Nicaragua, for the west and the lands lying there.^[16] Today the DLE has the adjective “setting” (of a star), the noun “west” and the west wind.^[2]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – ponient and sol poniente in La fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[9][10]
• 1257–1271 – contra poniente in the land records of Murcia.^[9]
• c. 1275 – the Primera crónica general, Corominas's first record.^[4]
• 1272–1275 – the General estoria uses it for the west wind.^[11]
• 1527 – first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[16]
• 1609 – Juan Hidalgo records poniente “hat” in thieves' cant.^[14]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records de Oriente a Poniente.^[13]
• 1737 – Autoridades defines the west and the sailors' west wind.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy explains it by poner, where the sun sets.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a star or the sun: setting, sinking below the horizon.^[2][1]

Noun

1. The west, the cardinal point where the sun sets, often written with a capital: Las ventanas del salón miran a poniente.^[2][17][1]
2. The west wind.^[2][17]

Related words

• poner
• ponente
• puesta
• Latin pōnō
• Portuguese poente

Usage notes

As the name of the cardinal point it is often written with a capital, el Poniente.^[18][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. poniente
3. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. poniente
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 607
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poner
6. ^ 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. 849
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5139
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ 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. poniente
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. poniente
11. ^ 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. poniente
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 321
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. 1222
14. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 192
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 797
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. poniente
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poniente
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. poniente
19. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. poniente