regla

Forms

regla f (plural reglas)^[1] Old Spanish texts also write rregla and the Latin spelling regula.^[2] A diphthongised riegla is found in old Asturian and Castilian, in the Fuero Juzgo.^[3]

Etymology

It is a learned word, borrowed from Latin rēgula (“straight rod, ruler; rule”), taken from Latin in the earliest period of the language.^[4][5][6][7] The Latin noun meant a straight bar of wood or metal before it meant a moral rule.^[5][8] The same Latin word, handed down by popular speech, gave Old Spanish relia and modern reja “ploughshare”, the inherited doublet of this word.^[9][10] Its other popular outcomes include Portuguese relha, Galician rella, Asturian reya, Aragonese rella and Catalan rella, all names of the ploughshare.^[3][11][12] Italian regola and French règle are learned forms like the Spanish word.^[12]

The Latin noun is formed from the root of regō (“to direct, guide, govern”) with the suffix -ula.^[13][1] De Vaan lists it among the derivatives of the verb, first recorded in Varro.^[14] The verb goes back to *regō and Proto-Indo-European *h₃reǵ- (“to straighten”), the root of rey and regir as well.^[1][7][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to charters of 967 and 1122 in Oelschläger's list, and finds it in Berceo.^[4][5] In Berceo's Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos (c. 1236, in a late 13th-century copy) it is the rule of a monastic order: lo que dicié la regla facié él toda vía “whatever the rule said, he always did”.^[16] The CDH's first hit, the Cortes de León of 1208, uses it for the rule of canon law, la regla dita de los decretos “the rule called that of the decretals”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose already has the word as the drawing instrument, as the rule of a religious order, as a statute or way of doing something, and as a precept of a science or art.^[17] Covarrubias in 1611 explains the monastic sense by the Latin regulares, the religious who live by a rule, and also gives regla for a sick person's regimen of food.^[18] The Academy's dictionaries added the moral senses of moderation and measure in 1817, and in 1843 the invariable order of natural things, menstruation and a method in arithmetic, with phrases such as regla de tres.^[19][20]

Today regla is above all a rule or norm, while the ruler of the school desk keeps the oldest sense.^[6][21] The colloquial sense “menstruation” is common.^[1][22] Cuba uses regla for the Afro-Cuban cults regla de ochá and regla de palo.^[23]

Timeline

• 967 – first record, in a charter; a second follows in 1122.^[4][5]
• 1208 – the Cortes de León speak of the rule of the decretals.^[16]
• c. 1236 – Berceo uses it for the rule of a monastery, in the Vida de Santo Domingo de Silos.^[16]
• 1254–1260 – Alfonso X's scientific prose uses regla for the ruler used to draw lines.^[17]
• 1289 – reglón, an augmentative of regla, appears in a Leonese document; it later became renglón “line of writing”.^[4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija translates it with Latin regula and norma.^[24][25]
• 1516 – first record in the Americas, at Darién.^[26]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the senses of precept, monastic rule, carpenter's rule and diet.^[18]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds menstruation and the law of natural things.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin regula.^[27]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ruler: a straight, rigid strip used to draw straight lines or measure distances: Traza el margen con la regla.^[6][1]
2. A rule or norm that must be followed because a group has agreed on it.^[6][1]
3. The body of basic precepts that a religious order must observe: la regla de los cartujos.^[6][21]
4. An established way of doing something; a precept or principle of a science or art.^[6]
5. (mathematics) A method of performing an operation, as in regla de tres “rule of three”.^[6][20]
6. (figurative) A moral standard; moderation, measure.^[6]
7. The regular, predictable way in which natural phenomena occur.^[6][21]
8. (colloquial) menstruation, a period.^[6][1]
9. (philosophy, linguistics) A set of operations for a correct inference; a general statement of a linguistic process.^[6]

Word family

• reglamento
• reglar
• regleta
• arreglar
• reglón
• renglón

Related words

• regular
• irregular
• reja
• regir
• rey
• Latin regula

Usage notes

Set phrases include en regla “in order, as it should be”, por regla general “as a rule”, las cuatro reglas “the four operations of arithmetic” and the proverb no hay regla sin excepción.^[6][28][1] The proverb is already in the Quijote.^[29]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. regla
3. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. regula
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 900
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. regla
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. regla
7. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. regla
8. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. regla
9. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 859
10. ^ 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. reja
11. ^ 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. 7, 229
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7177
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. regla
16. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. regla
17. ^ 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. regla
18. ^ 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. 1253
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 743
20. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 622
21. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. regla
22. ^ Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. regla
23. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. regla
24. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (c. 1495), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca (facsimile, Madrid: Real Academia Española 1951), p. 180
25. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 407
26. ^ 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. regla
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 913
28. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 669
29. ^ 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. 957