puerto

Forms

puerto m (plural puertos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish puerto, inherited from Latin portus (“harbour entrance, harbour”).^[2][3][4][1] The same word is Portuguese porto, Galician porto, Asturian puertu, Catalan port, Occitan port, French port and Italian porto.^[5][6] In Latin the word is cognate with porta (“gate”).^[7] Wiktionary traces it through Proto-Italic *portus to Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”), from *per- (“to go forth, cross”).^[1]

The sense “mountain pass” and “mountain country” is peculiar to Castilian, Catalan, Mozarabic, Basque and Gascon.^[2] Corominas asks whether it could come from a general Latin sense “opening, passage”, but finds it strange that such a sense should be only Hispanic and only hypothetical in Latin, while it is the basic meaning of the word's relatives in other branches: πόρος (póros, “passage”), Old Norse fjǫrðr “sea passage between mountains”, Old High German furt (“ford”), ford, and Latin angiportus (“narrow alley”).^[2][3] He therefore thinks it likely that a pre-Roman Indo-European language of the Pyrenees, which he calls Sorothaptic, had a word of the same shape meaning “passage”, and that the mountain sense comes from it.^[2][3] From the same source would come Basque bortu, whose plural names the Pyrenees.^[2][6] The Catalan dictionary of Coromines repeats this view.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is a charter of 1073; the DEMel cites puertos in a charter of 1085.^[2][3][9] The mountain sense is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140): “Estonces se mudó el Cid al puerto de Alucant” “then the Cid moved to the pass of Alucant”.^[10][11] The Latin Illo Portu de Colunco of the Fuero de Alquézar (1069) is a place name.^[2] The sea sense is in Berceo: “¡sáquenos Dios a puerto!” “may God bring us safe to harbour!”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

Both senses have lived side by side since Old Spanish.^[2] The prose of Alfonso X has the figurative puerto de salud “refuge”.^[12] Nebrija glossed puerto de monte with Latin faux.^[2] In the Andes of Chile and Argentina the diminutive portezuelo takes the place of the mountain sense.^[2] Covarrubias (1611) explained Latin portus from portare, because goods are carried through it.^[13] Cervantes's Puerto Lápice is a pass between two hills on the road through La Mancha.^[14]

Autoridades also recorded the obsolete sense “mouth of the womb”, still in the Academy's dictionary in 1843.^[15][16] The criminal cant of 1609 used puerto for an inn.^[17] The Academy listed puertos as the summer pastures of the Mesta in 1884, and the computing sense “port” by 2001.^[18][19] Spanish passed the word to the languages of the Philippines, such as Tagalog pwerto.^[1]

Timeline

• 1073 – first record, in a charter.^[2][3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for a mountain pass.^[2][11]
• 1228–1246 – Berceo uses it for a harbour.^[2][10]
• 1280 – Alfonso X's General estoria has puerto de salud “refuge”.^[12]
• 1518 – the first record in the Americas, in Tierra Firme.^[20]
• 1609 – the cant sense “inn” in Hidalgo's vocabulary.^[17]
• 1843 – the derivative portezuelo appears in the Academy's dictionary.^[3]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology and the Mesta sense.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A port or harbour: a place on a coast or river bank where ships load and unload: El barco entró en el puerto de madrugada.^[4][1]
2. A town that has a port.^[4]
3. A mountain pass.^[4][1]
4. A mountain or range crossed by one or more passes.^[4][18]
5. A weir of turf, brushwood and gravel across a river to raise the water.^[4]
6. A refuge or shelter.^[4][12]
7. (computing) A port, a connection point for peripherals.^[4][1]
8. (cant) An inn.^[4][17]
9. (in the plural, history) The summer pastures of the Mesta.^[4]

Word family

• portazgo
• aeropuerto
• antepuerto
• helipuerto
• portezuelo
• portachuelo
• aportar

Related words

• portuario
• puerta
• oportuno
• importuno
• portulano
• Latin portus

Usage notes

Puerto franco is a free port, and puerto de arrebatacapas a windy place or a place where one risks being cheated.^[4][21] Moliner notes that puerto can be used without an article: salir de puerto, volver a puerto.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 682
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puerto
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. puerto
5. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. portus
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. portus
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. portus
8. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 6, 718
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. puerto
10. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. puerto
11. ^ a b Menéndez Pidal, Ramón (1908–1911), Cantar de Mio Cid: texto, gramática y vocabulario, 3 vols., Madrid: Bailly-Baillière, p. s.v. puerto
12. ^ a b c 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. puerto
13. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1235
14. ^ 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. s.v. puerto
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 425
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 597
17. ^ a b c 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. 193
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. 877
19. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. puerto
20. ^ 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. puerto
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. puerto