ramo

Forms

ramo m (plural ramos)^[1] A charter of 1115 from San Vicente de Oviedo spells it rammo.^[2]

Etymology

It continues inherited from Latin rāmus (“branch, bough”).^[3][4][5][1] The same Latin word is Portuguese ramo, Galician ramo, Catalan ram, Occitan ram, Old French raim, Italian ramo and Romanian ram.^[6][7] Beside it the Romance languages formed a collective Vulgar Latin *rama, on the model of folia (“leaves”) beside folium (“leaf”), which gave rama.^[3][6] Spanish increasingly replaced the masculine by the feminine and kept the masculine for small branches and figurative uses.^[3][4]

The Latin word probably goes back to Proto-Italic *wrād-mo- and is related to rādīx (“root”), the source of raíz.^[8][9][1] De Vaan justifies the difference of meaning by a Greek word that can mean either “branch” or “root”, and notes that the Latin noun could also go back to a form without the dental, if the root was simply *wreh₂-.^[8] Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂dmos, from *wréh₂ds (“root”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds it in the earliest texts of the language, the Glosas Silenses and Berceo; the BDELC dates it to the end of the 10th century.^[3][4] In La fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200) the blessing of Joseph is rendered Ramo cargado Josep, ramo cargado sobre fontanas “Joseph is a laden branch, a laden branch by the springs”.^[10] Local fueros of the early 13th century fine whoever cuts a ramo of a fruit tree or vine.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used ramo for the branch of a tree, and in the prose of Alfonso X also for something that branches off from a main body, such as an arm of the Nile, and for the hanging bands of a headdress.^[11] The domingo de los ramos “Palm Sunday” appears in the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215).^[10] Figurative phrases such as ramo de trayción (in the Libro de Alexandre) and ramo de locura (1517) have parallels in Portuguese ramo and Catalan ram de follia.^[3] From this came the sense “mild or incipient illness”.^[5][12]

The Autoridades (1737) treated ramo as a synonym of rama, strictly a branch already cut, and also as a part separated from a whole, such as a spur of the Pyrenees.^[13] The Academy added in 1817 a string of garlic and the silk threads of the ribbon-maker, and recorded vender al ramo “to sell wine retail”, from the branch hung over the door where wine was sold; the same custom explains ramera “prostitute”, at first a woman who passed herself off as a tavern-keeper.^[12][3] In 1843 it had the sense of a branch of a science, art or trade, and in 1884 the bunch of flowers, which Rodríguez had defended as good usage in Chile.^[14][15][16] In Chile ramo is also a school subject.^[17]

Timeline

• late 10th century – first record, in the Glosas Silenses.^[4][3]
• 1064 – rama as a place name, in a charter.^[3]
• 1115 – rammo in a charter of San Vicente de Oviedo.^[2]
• c. 1200 – ramo cargado in La fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[10]
• c. 1215 – domingo de los ramos “Palm Sunday”.^[10]
• 1532 – first record from the Americas, Mexico: día de Ramos.^[18]
• 1737 – the Autoridades defines it as a cut branch and a part of a whole.^[13]
• 1843 – the Academy records the sense “branch of a science or trade”.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy adds the bunch of flowers.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A secondary branch, one growing out of a main branch.^[5][1]
2. A branch cut from a tree: ramos de palma.^[5][13]
3. A bouquet or bunch of flowers, branches or herbs, natural or artificial: un ramo de claveles.^[5][19][1]
4. A string of garlic or onions, a ristra.^[5]
5. (passementerie) The set of silk threads with which the patterns of ribbons are worked.^[5][11]
6. Each of the divisions of a science, art or industry; a field or sector: Trabaja en el ramo textil.^[5][1]
7. An incipient or ill-defined illness: ramo de locura.^[5][3]
8. (historical) A pine or olive branch hung up to show where wine was sold.^[5][19]
9. (Chile) A school subject.^[17]

Word family

• rama
• ramal
• ramalazo
• ramazón
• ramera
• ramilla
• ramillo
• ramojo
• ramón
• ramonear
• ramoso
• enramar
• enramada
• ramada

Related words

• derramar
• ramificar
• ramaje
• ramillete
• raíz
• Latin rāmus
• Portuguese ramo

Usage notes

Domingo de Ramos is Palm Sunday, and ramo de olivo the olive branch as a symbol of peace.^[19][1] In Leonese and Salamanca villages ramo is also the decorated pole carried in processions, round which girls plait ribbons.^[20][21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ramo
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 764
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ramo
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ramo
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7035
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ramus
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rāmus
10. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ramo
11. ^ 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. ramo
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 726
13. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 486
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 608
15. ^ 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. 895
16. ^ Rodríguez, Zorobabel (1875), Diccionario de chilenismos, Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de El Independiente, p. 1
17. ^ a b Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 13
18. ^ 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. ramo
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ramo
20. ^ Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 596
21. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. ramo