puente

Forms

puente m (plural puentes)^[1] Old Spanish has puente and the apocopated puent, and in some texts ponte.^[2][3] The word was feminine in the Middle Ages (la puent in the Cid, puente pequeña in Nebrija) and is still used as a feminine in Chile for a small bridge and in some western dialects; the Academy marked it as of either gender until the 20th century.^[4][5][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish puente, inherited from Latin pōns (“bridge”).^[4][7][6][1] The Latin noun was masculine, and so is the word in most Romance languages; it became feminine only in Spanish, Portuguese and an Alpine area of Romansh and the neighbouring Italian valleys.^[4][8] The stressed /o/ of the Latin word gave the diphthong /we/ in Castilian, where the similar monte kept its vowel.^[9]

The same word is Portuguese ponte, Galician ponte, Asturian ponte, Catalan pont, French pont, Italian ponte and Romanian punte.^[8][10][1] Corominas points out that Catalan has never made it feminine.^[4]

It continues Proto-Italic *pont-, from Proto-Indo-European *pónth₁s (“road”): the sense moved from “road” to “bridge” in Latin.^[11] Its cognates mean “path” or “way”: Sanskrit पन्था (pánthā-, “road, path”), Ancient Greek πάτος (pátos, “path”) and πόντος (póntos, “sea”), Old Church Slavonic пѫть (pǫtĭ, “road”).^[11][1] The name of the Roman priests, pontifex, whence Spanish pontífice, has been explained by most scholars as “bridge-maker”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of 1043.^[4][7] In the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) Martín Antolínez avoids the bridge of Burgos so as not to be seen: „Non viene a la puent, ca por el agua á passado” “he does not come by the bridge, for he has crossed through the water”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The feminine was general in the Middle Ages (the Cid, Berceo, Juan Ruiz) and is still found in the Quijote and in Lope de Vega;^[12] Góngora and Ruiz de Alarcón used both genders, and Corominas suspects Latin and Italian influence behind the masculine that has won in the modern language.^[4] Terreros noted in 1788 that some said el puente and others la puente.^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 gave the proverb al enemigo que se retira, la puente de plata “build a silver bridge for a retreating enemy”.^[13] He also derived the Latin word, fancifully, from a verb “to hang”.^[13]

Transferred senses grew in the technical vocabulary: the Diccionario de Autoridades has the bridge of boats and the gun deck of a ship; the Academy's 1817 dictionary the bridge of a guitar or violin; the 2001 edition the dental bridge, and the modern dictionaries the bridge of a pair of glasses, the arch of the foot and the day off between two holidays.^{[14][15][16][6]} In the Andes the conquerors described rope bridges, puentes de red, as early as 1533.^[17]

Timeline

• 1043 – the first record, in a charter.^[4][7]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has the feminine la puent.^[3][4]
• c. 1236 – Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos describes a narrow bridge made all of glass, una puente.^[3]
• 1256–1300 – the legal prose of Alfonso X uses the word for bridges as public works.^[18]
• 1513 – Nebrija glosses puente generalmente with Latin pons.^[19]
• 1528 – the first record from the Americas, a wooden bridge in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1533 – rope bridges, puentes de red, are described in Cuzco.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the proverb of the silver bridge.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the bridge of stringed instruments.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin pons, pontis.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bridge: a structure of stone, brick, wood, iron or concrete built over a river, a ditch or another gap so that it can be crossed.^[6][1]
2. A floor of boards laid on boats or other floating bodies for crossing a river; a pontoon bridge.^[6]
3. (music) The bridge of a stringed instrument, which holds the strings up or fastens them to the top.^[6]
4. (dentistry) A dental bridge that fastens false teeth to the natural ones.^[6][1]
5. A working day or days between two holidays, or next to one, taken off: Este año el puente de diciembre cae en martes.^[6][1]
6. The long weekend formed by such days together with the holidays.^[6][1]
7. (electricity) A connection that closes an interrupted circuit.^[6]
8. (gymnastics) An exercise in which the body is arched backwards and rests on hands and feet.^[6][1]
9. The piece of a pair of glasses that joins the two lenses.^[6]
10. The arch of the sole of the foot.^[6][1]
11. (nautical) The bridge of a ship, the platform from which it is commanded.^[1][20]

Word family

• puentear
• pontazgo
• pontazguero
• entrepuente
• lanzapuentes

Related words

• pontífice
• pontón
• Latin pōns
• Portuguese ponte
• Catalan pont

Usage notes

Puente aéreo is a frequent air service between two places, hacer puente “to take the day off between two holidays”.^[6] Puente levadizo “drawbridge” is recorded by Terreros.^[12]

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. puente
3. ^ 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. puente
4. ^ 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, 674
5. ^ 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. 876
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. puente
7. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puente
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6649
9. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 116
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5141
11. ^ 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
12. ^ a b c Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 239
13. ^ a b c Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1234
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 423
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 712
16. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. puente
17. ^ a b c 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. puente
18. ^ 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. puente
19. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 402
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puente