pulgada

Forms

pulgada f (plural pulgadas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pollicāta (“thumb's length”), a derivative of Latin pollex (“thumb”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The DLE derives it from pulgar “thumb”, under whose article the DCECH treats it.^[6][2] The word for “thumb” is itself from pollicāris (“a thumb long”).^[2] Old Spanish also had the form polgada, as it had polgar beside the form with ⟨u⟩.^[7][8][2] The DCECH reports that Baist and Zauner explained the ⟨u⟩ of that word by popular association with pulga “flea”.^[2]

The same Latin derivative is Portuguese polegada, Catalan pollegada (dialectal) and Old Occitan polgada.^[2][5] Wiktionary suggests that Galician pulgada may have been borrowed from Spanish.^[1]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[9][1] It has traditionally been compared with Proto-Slavic *palьcь (“thumb, finger”), with the ⟨ll⟩ explained by polleō (“to be strong”); de Vaan finds that this does not account for the Latin form, and prefers Meier-Brügger's Proto-Italic *por-likʰ-s (“which is licked over”), from the root of lingō (“to lick”).^[9][1] As the name of the English unit, Wiktionary calls the word a calque of English inch.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, known from a 14th-century copy), where the Cid recalls taking his opponent by the beard at Cabra: Non ý ovo rapaz que non messó su pulgada “there was no lad there who did not pull out his pinch”.^[10][3] The measure itself appears in a text of 1256 that fixes a fine by quantas pulgadas fueren en la inchadura “as many inches as there are in the swelling”, and in the General Estoria (c. 1275), where the ichneumon is doze polgadas long.^[10][8]

Semantic evolution

From the 13th century the word was the twelfth part of the foot; a Jerez ordinance of 1268 has cloth measured por esta vara and con la pulgada.^[8][10] Nebrija gives Latin pollex transversus for it, and Percyvall in 1591 renders it “an inch”.^[11][12] The Diccionario de Autoridades explains the name by the thumb used for measuring, and quotes Guevara: no gastaba su sangre a dedos, ni a pulgadas, sino a azumbres y a cántaros “he did not spend his blood by fingers or inches but by gallons and pitchers”.^[13] Terreros notes that the inch was divided into twelve lines, or by others into ten, and that the common inch is the width of the thumb.^[14]

The Academy added the etymology “de pulgar” in 1884, and in 1899 gave the Castilian inch as a little over 23 millimetres.^[15][16] With the spread of English measures the word came to name the English inch of 25.4 mm, the second sense in the DLE.^[6][17] In the Americas cloth sold a la pulgada is recorded in Puebla in 1556.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid has su pulgada, a pinch of a beard.^[10][2]
• c. 1235 – the Fuero de Alcalá has una pulgada in a penalty for an injury.^[10]
• 1256 – a text fixes fines by the pulgadas of a swelling.^[10]
• c. 1275 – the General Estoria uses the form polgadas for the measure.^[8]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives pollex transversus.^[11]
• 1556 – first record in the Americas, in Puebla.^[18]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates it “an inch”.^[12]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the twelfth part of a foot.^[13]
• 1899 – the Academy gives its value as a little over 23 mm.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) The Castilian inch, a twelfth of a foot, a little over 23 mm.^[6][17][1]
2. The English inch, 25.4 mm: La pantalla mide treinta pulgadas.^[6][4][1]

Related words

• pulgar
• Latin pollex
• Portuguese polegada

Usage notes

The abbreviation is pulg.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 686
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pulgar
4. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pulgada
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *pollicāta
6. ^ a b c d 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. pulgada
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 5132
8. ^ a b c d 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. pulgada
9. ^ a b 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. pollex
10. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pulgada
11. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 402
12. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 196
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, s.v. pulgada
14. ^ 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, 242
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 878
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 824
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pulgada
18. ^ 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. pulgada