reloj

Forms

reloj m (plural relojes)^[1] Old Spanish wrote relox and reloxe, as in the CDH texts of the 15th century, and reloge in Aragonese.^[2] Popular pronunciations without the final consonant, reló and relós, are found in Spain and the Americas, usually with the plural relojes.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Catalan relotge (modern Catalan rellotge), which is from Latin hōrologium (“sundial, water clock”), from Ancient Greek ὡρολόγιον (hōrológion).^[3][4][5] The Greek word is a compound of ὥρα (hṓra, “time, hour”) and the root of λέγω (légō, “to count, tell”).^[3][6] Corominas argues that the word came from Catalonia together with the mechanical clock, which was invented in late medieval Europe and is mentioned there with wheels and counterweights in the 14th and 15th centuries; the Catalan origin explains the irregular loss of the Latin final vowel.^[3] In Catalan he finds the word in Eiximenis in 1382, beside older forms closer to the Latin such as orollotge.^[3] The BDELC dates the Catalan form to 1362.^[4]

Spanish first adapted the Catalan word as *reloje.^[3][4] The singular was then drawn from the plural relojes, on the model of words such as almofrej, and in final position the consonant was devoiced to the relox that Moroccan Judeo-Spanish still pronounces.^[3][1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese relógio, Galician reloxo, Occitan relòtge, French horloge and Italian orologio.^[1][7][8] The French word, orloge in the 12th century, was respelt after the Latin in the 15th.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DPCAX quotes the first part of Alfonso X's General Estoria (1272–1275), where the axis of the heavens is compared with the axles of a cart, a mill, a waterwheel and a reloio.^[10] The DEMel lists reloge in a Segovian chapter record of after 1296.^[11] Corominas's first record is about 1400, in the glossaries of El Escorial and Toledo, where relox translates Medieval Latin erologium.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the sundial, the water clock and the sandglass;^[12] Nebrija has relox de agua for clepsydra and relox de sol, and a sandglass is still meant in a nautical account of 1519.^[3][12] In the 15th century it is the town clock that strikes the hours: in Zaragoza in 1414 the hours were to be made public por tocament de reloge, and Pero Tafur admired the tower do tienen el relox.^[2] Covarrubias in 1611 described the many kinds of reloxes, and the Diccionario de Autoridades (1737) defined the mechanical clock with its wheels, spring or weights, and the pendulum clock as a new invention.^[13][14] The Academy's 1884 edition derives it from Latin and Greek.^[15] Today it is any instrument for measuring time, the watch as well as the clock.^[5][1] In Honduras and Nicaragua, and jocularly in Costa Rica, it is a word for the heart, and in Cuba the electricity meter.^[16]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – reloio in the General Estoria.^[10]
• after 1296 – reloge in a Segovian chapter record.^[11]
• c. 1400 – relox glosses Latin erologium;^[17] Corominas's first record.^[3][4]
• 1414 – the public clock of Zaragoza, reloge.^[2]
• 1490 – Alonso de Palencia explains horologium as an instrument for telling the hours, relox.^[3]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, a sandglass in Puerto Rico.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes sundials and water clocks.^[13]
• 1737 – the Diccionario de Autoridades enters relox and the pendulum clock.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin and Greek.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. An instrument for measuring time; a clock or watch: Mi reloj se ha parado.^[5][1]
2. A mechanical clock or watch.^[5]
3. (in the plural, botany) The plant stork's bill.^[5]
4. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica) The heart.^[16]
5. (Cuba) An electricity meter.^[16]

Word family

• contrarreloj
• relojería
• relojero
• relojera

Related words

• hora
• Catalan rellotge
• Portuguese relógio
• French horloge

Usage notes

Common combinations are reloj de sol “sundial”, reloj de arena “hourglass” and reloj de agua “water clock”.^[3][12] The final ⟨j⟩ is often silent in speech (reló), and the plural remains relojes.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. reloj
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 869
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. reloj
5. ^ a b c d e 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. reloj
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. reloj
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. horologium
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. horologium
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. horloge
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. reloj
11. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. reloj
12. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. reloj
13. ^ 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. 1255
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 561
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. 917
16. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. reloj
17. ^ 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. reló