poro

Forms

poro m (plural poros)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin porus (“passage, channel in the body”), which is from Ancient Greek πόρος (póros, “passage, way; pore”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Greek noun has the o-grade of πείρω (peírō, “to pierce, run through”).^[1][6] Beekes notes that the old meaning “to carry across, ferry” survives in the noun, and compares Latin portō (“to carry”).^[6] Wiktionary traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *per- (“to pass, go forth”).^[1]

The same Latin word gave French pore, Italian poro and Portuguese poro.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Moamín of Abraham of Toledo (1250, in a later 13th-century manuscript) speaks of the poros en que están las pénnolas fincadas “pores in which the feathers are set” of hunting birds.^[8][9] Alfonso X's Lapidario calls a stone light because it has many open pores.^[10] Corominas first found it about 1440 in Alfonso de la Torre.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that Nebrija still lacked the word, but Valverde de Hamusco used it at the end of the 16th century, and so did other authors of the Golden Age.^[2] The Academy's 1817 edition described pores as tiny holes left by nature in every body, through which hair, sweat and vapours come out.^[11] In 1899 it added the etymology, and Alemany's dictionary of 1917 defined pores as the spaces between molecules.^[12][13] The DLE now distinguishes the spaces between molecules, the gaps between particles of a solid, and the tiny openings in the surface of animals and plants.^[4]

Timeline

• 1250 – the Moamín speaks of the pores of birds' skin.^[8][9]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses it of stones.^[10]
• c. 1440 – Alfonso de la Torre, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1591 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City, of closing the pores of the skin.^[14]
• 1817 – the Academy describes the pores of the body at length.^[11]
• 1899 – the Academy derives it from Latin porus and Greek “way, passage”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A space between the molecules of a body.^[4]
2. A gap between the particles of a solid of loose structure.^[4][15]
3. A pore: a tiny opening, too small to see with the naked eye, in the surface of animals and plants: El vapor abre los poros de la piel.^[4][1][16]

Word family

• poroso
• porosidad

Related words

• microporo
• Latin porus
• Ancient Greek πόρος (póros)

Usage notes

In Argentina, Bolivia and Peru a separate word poro, from Quechua púru, is a pear-shaped gourd with a neck, used especially for drinking mate.^[4][17][18] In Mexico poro also means a leek, a form of porro or puerro.^[4][17][19] Old Spanish had an unrelated poro or por o “whereby, through which”.^[20][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 615
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. poro
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. poro
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ 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. poro
9. ^ a b 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
10. ^ 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. poro
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 690
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía
13. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1354
14. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies
15. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos
16. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo
19. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (2001), Diccionario breve de mexicanismos, México: Academia Mexicana / Fondo de Cultura Económica
20. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock
21. ^ Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos