pretina

Forms

pretina f (plural pretinas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote petrina; the form survives in northern Burgos, Navarre, Santander and Asturias.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish petrina, inherited from Vulgar Latin *pectorīna, the feminine of an adjective *pectorīnus used as a noun, formed on Latin pectus (“chest, breast”) with the adjective suffix -īnus.^[4][1][5] Corominas groups it with pretil and with the breast strap of a horse, formed from the same Latin stem in a parallel way, and gives its first sense as “strap that girded the chest”.^[3][6] The modern form shows the same shift of the /r/ as pretal, earlier petral.^[3]

Portuguese petrina and Asturian petrina are the same word;^[7][8] Nascentes also derives the Portuguese word from the same Latin form and glosses it originally as a strap round the chest.^[7][8] Ribagorzan has potrina (“chest”).^[2] The same formation is French poitrine (“chest”), which, like the Old Spanish word, names the chest itself, and Wiktionary also lists Italian pettorina and Occitan peitrina.^[3][1]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *pektos for the Latin noun and takes Old Irish ucht (“breast, chest”) as a likely cognate if it comes from an earlier *pektu-.^[9] Wiktionary calls the Proto-Indo-European source uncertain, with *pekt-, *pek- and *peg- proposed.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, known from a 14th-century copy), where petrina means the chest or breast, as Corominas notes: Su cuello e su petrina, tal como la flor dell espina “her neck and her breast, like the flower of the hawthorn”.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

From a strap round the chest the word passed to a belt at the waist, and Corominas dates pretina in this sense to about 1600, in Antonio de Herrera.^[3][6] In 1737 the Diccionario de Autoridades described it as a strap with metal fittings to shorten or lengthen it and a spring catch to fasten it at the waist, and also used it for the waist itself and for the part of breeches and skirts fitted to the waist.^[11] The Academy's 1817 edition added the figurative sense “anything that girds something” and the phrase meter en pretina “to force someone to do his duty”, which Cervantes already used in the form poner en pretina.^[12][13]

In the Americas the word is recorded from 1571 in Mexico City.^[14] In Mexico a pretina is also a belt used to whip children, and traer a alguien a la pretina means to keep someone on a short rein.^[15] In Nicaragua it is a cut of beef used in tripe soup, and in Asturian petrina also means the fly of trousers.^[16][8]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – petrina “chest” in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (14th-century copy).^[10][3]
• c. 1400 – the Viaje de Juan de Mandevilla describes animals whose head, neck and petrina are all black.^[10]
• c. 1445–1480 – Antón de Montoro's Cancionero (in an 18th-century copy) has the form pretina.^[10]
• 1571 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City.^[14]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “a girdle”.^[17]
• c. 1600 – Antonio de Herrera uses pretina for the waist, the first record Corominas gives for the modern form.^[3][11]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines the belt, the waist and the waistband.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the figurative sense and the phrase meter en pretina.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the word from prieto “tight”;^[18][19][4] Alemany in 1917 derives it from Latin pectus, as the DLE now does.^[18][19][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strap or band with a buckle or clasp for fastening certain garments at the waist.^[4][5]
2. The waist, where such a strap is fastened.^[4]
3. The waistband of trousers, skirts and similar garments: Le quedaba floja la pretina de los vaqueros.^[4][1]
4. Anything that girds or surrounds something else.^[4]
5. (Nicaragua) A cut of beef from the flank, used in tripe soup.^[16]

Word family

• pretinazo

Related words

• pecho
• pretal
• pretil
• pectoral
• Latin pectus
• French poitrine

Usage notes

The set phrase meter (or poner) a alguien en pretina means to bring someone into line.^[4][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4878
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 454
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. pretina
5. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pretina
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pecho
7. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. petrina
8. ^ a b c Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. petrina
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. pectus
10. ^ 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. pretina
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 372
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 701
13. ^ 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. 905
14. ^ 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. pretina
15. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 889
16. ^ 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. pretina
17. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 194
18. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 863
19. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1369