rana

Forms

rana f (plural ranas)^[1] 13th-century texts also write rranas.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rāna (“frog”).^[3][4][5][1] The same word is Portuguese rã, Galician ra, Asturian rana, Old French raine and Italian rana.^[6][7] Old Portuguese had raa and arraa.^[6][7] It was inherited by all the western Romance languages, but Catalan and French soon replaced it with a cross of the diminutive Vulgar Latin *ranucula and its Gaulish synonym crassantos, giving Catalan granota, Occitan granolha and French grenouille.^[3]

The Latin word is imitative: Varro says it was named from its own call.^[8][9] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *rānā and considers a link to a root for “to roar”, or an older *rak-snā-, only possible.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy) threatens Pharaoh's land with a plague of frogs: con altanach, ço son ranas “with altanach, that is, frogs”.^[10][2] Corominas's first record is the Libro de Apolonio, about 1250.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The word has been in general use at every period.^[3] Nebrija already records the sense “angler fish” (rana marina, the modern pejesapo).^[3][5] Covarrubias describes the frog as a marsh animal that troubles people with its croaking, above all when it forecasts rain.^[11] Modern Spain uses it for a game in which coins are thrown into the open mouth of a metal frog, and, mostly in the diminutive, for a child's romper.^[5][12] Colloquial phrases are salir rana “to turn out a disappointment”, no ser rana “to be no fool” and cuando las ranas críen pelo “never”.^[12][13] In Colombia it is a disparaging word for an informer, and in Bolivia and the River Plate a sly person.^[5][14]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar has ranas.^[10][2]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón list the plagues of Egypt, de sagne & de ranas.^[10]
• c. 1250 – the Libro de Apolonio, Corominas's first record.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario tells of a stone that gathers frogs.^[15]
• c. 1400 – first record of ranacuajo, later renacuajo “tadpole”.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin rana and also the fish sense.^[16][3]
• 1517 – first record of ranilla.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A frog: a tailless amphibian of the order Anura, green or brown above and white below, that lives near fresh water.^[5][12][1]
2. A game in which players throw coins or discs into the open mouth of a metal frog.^[5][12]
3. (Spain, chiefly in the diminutive) A child's romper or puffed shorts.^[5]
4. (Colombia, colloquial, derogatory) An informer.^[5]
5. (in the plural) Ranulas (ránula), soft swellings under the tongue.^[5][12]

Word family

• ranilla
• renacuajo

Related words

• ranúnculo
• ránula
• Portuguese rã

Usage notes

Rana marina or rana pescadora is the angler fish.^[5][12] Rana de zarzal is a small warty toad-like amphibian.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. rana
3. ^ 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, 766
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rana
5. ^ 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. rana
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7030
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5415
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. rāna
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
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. rana
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1245
12. ^ a b c d e f Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. rana
13. ^ León, Víctor (1980), Diccionario de argot español y lenguaje popular, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, p. s.v. rana
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. rana
15. ^ 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. rana
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 405