resina

Forms

resina f (plural resinas)^[1] Alfonso X's Lapidario has the variant rasina.^[2][3] A Basque-influenced form rechina “pine resin” is recorded in Bilbao.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin resina (“resin”).^[4][5][6] Corominas suspects that the Spanish word is learned, as Portuguese resina, French résine and Italian resina plainly are, though he notes that Catalan reïna and the Gascon form rousia are clearly inherited forms.^[4] DICCA-XV and Houaiss also treat it as taken from Latin, while Wiktionary has it inherited through Old Spanish resina and adds that it may have been borrowed.^[7][8][1] García de Diego sets the Catalan spelling ⟨rehina⟩ beside it.^[9]

The OLD calls it an adaptation of Ancient Greek ῥητίνη (rhētínē), and Wiktionary calls it a borrowing from the Greek.^[10][1] Lewis and Short only say that the Latin is perhaps akin to the Greek.^[11] The DHLF holds that Latin and Greek probably both took the word from a non-Indo-European language.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit is the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca (c. 1215, in a 14th-century copy), where the saint's breast is “as black as pitch and resin”: Tan negra era la su petrina, como la pez e la resina.^[3][13] In the Moamín of 1250, a hunting treatise in a copy of the second half of the 13th century, hunting animals are given the resin of thorn bushes as a remedy.^[3] The DCECH, which did not have these texts, dates the word to a glossary of about 1400 in the Escorial.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

In Alfonso X's histories resin is named beside pitch and tow as material for incendiary weapons, and his Lapidario uses it in plasters for wounds.^[3][2] Covarrubias in 1611 gave only the Latin word and a Latin gloss.^[14] The 1726 Autoridades defined it as an oily, sticky fluid that trees sweat, with a quotation on the copal brought from New Spain.^[15] The Academy's definitions of 1843 and 1869 name the pine as the chief source; from 1884 they describe it chemically, as insoluble in water and soluble in alcohol and essential oils.^[16][17] Modern dictionaries add synthetic resins, the materials of plastics, glues and lacquers.^[18][19]

Timeline

• c. 1215 – the Vida de Santa María Egipcíaca, in a 14th-century copy, compares the saint's skin to pitch and resin.^[3]
• 1250 – the Moamín uses resin as a remedy for hunting animals.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has the form rasina.^[2]
• c. 1400 – the first record known to Corominas, in an Escorial glossary.^[4][5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin resina as its equivalent.^[4]
• 1512 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1600 – the derivative resinoso is first recorded.^[5]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology “Del lat. resina”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. resin: a solid or sticky substance that flows from many plants, especially conifers, insoluble in water, soluble in alcohol and flammable: La resina del pino le manchó las manos.^[6][18][1]
2. (chemistry) A synthetic resin, a polymer used to make plastics, glues and lacquers.^[18][19]

Word family

• resinoso
• resinar
• resinero
• resinífero

Related words

• Latin resina
• Catalan reïna

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. resina
3. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. resina
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 886
5. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. resina
6. ^ a b 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. resina
7. ^ 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. resina
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. resina
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5633
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. résine
13. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. resina
14. ^ Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1261
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 594
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 632
17. ^ 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. 926
18. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. resina
19. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. resina
20. ^ 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. resina