red

Forms

red f (plural redes)^[1] Old Spanish spellings include reth, rret, rred and rede.^[2][3] The form rede, partly phonetic and partly modelled on the plural redes, is used today in Asturias, Soria, Burgos, Ávila and Albacete.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish red, inherited from Latin rēte (“net”).^[3][4][5][1] The Latin word was neuter, but popular Latin already had a feminine rētis, and more rarely a masculine one; the masculine prevailed in French, Occitan and Catalan and also existed in Aragon, where an inventory of 1400 has the masculine ret (“net”).^[3]

The same word is Portuguese rede, Galician rede, Catalan ret, Occitan ret, French rets and Italian rete.^[6][7][1] De Vaan suggests that the Latin singular was a back-formation from an original masculine with a neuter plural in ⟨-ia⟩.^[8] He rejects the old link with rārus (“thin, sparse”), allows a possible Baltic-Slavic cognate meaning “sieve”, and notes that a word so isolated and purely nominal may be a loan; a Semitic source has been proposed.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is reth in a charter of 1074.^[3][4] The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has it, in the episode of the lion: saliós' de la red e desatós' el león “the lion came out of the net and got loose”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has been in general use at every period.^[3] Alfonso X's prose uses it for a fishing net, a king fishing from his boat with redes doro “nets of gold”.^[10] Old Spanish also used it for a grille.^[7] Covarrubias lists the nets of hunters and fishers, the place where bread or fish is sold through a grille, the parlour of a convent and a kind of lacework, with the phrases echar sus redes “to use every means” and caer en la red.^[11] The Diccionario de Autoridades has the grille of a nuns' parlour, which the DLE now marks as obsolete.^[12][5]

The sense of a set of things organised for a purpose (water supply, telephone, railway networks) led to the computer network and the Internet;^[5][1] red social is a social network.^[5][1] The derivative redil “sheepfold” reflects the custom of penning flocks at night inside net fences.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1074 – reth in a charter.^[3][4]
• c. 1140 – red in the Cantar de mio Cid, in a 14th-century copy.^[9][3]
• 1220–1250 – the derivative enredar “to entangle in nets” in Berceo.^[3][4]
• 1270–1284 – redes doro in Alfonso X's prose.^[10]
• 1400 – the masculine un ret in an Aragonese inventory.^[3]
• 1513 – Nebrija gives Latin rete.^[13]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records echar sus redes and caer en la red.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin rete.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A net of threads, cords or wires knotted into meshes, used for fishing, hunting, enclosing or holding things: Los pescadores remendaban las redes en el muelle.^[5][1]
2. Meshed fabric or openwork.^[5]
3. A hairnet.^[5]
4. A place where bread or other goods are sold through a grating.^[5][11]
5. A trap or snare: a trick used to lure someone.^[5][1]
6. A meeting point of several streets.^[5]
7. A network: a set of elements organised for a purpose, as roads, railways or telephone lines.^[5][1]
8. A chain of establishments under one management.^[5]
9. A ring of people working together, usually secretly or illegally: una red de traficantes.^[5]
10. (computing) A computer network.^[5]
11. (computing) The Internet.^[5][1]
12. (obsolete) A grille or railing.^[5]

Word family

• redada
• redaño
• redecilla
• redil
• redero
• enredar
• enredo
• enredadera

Related words

• reticular
• retina
• retículo
• Latin rēte
• Portuguese rede

Usage notes

Red social is a social network, red barredera a dragnet, and red de araña a spider's web.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. red
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 831
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. red
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. red
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. rete
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. rete
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. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. red
10. ^ 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. red
11. ^ 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. 1251
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 528
13. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 406
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 908