retina

Forms

retina f (plural retinas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Medieval Latin retina, derived from Latin rete (“net”), because its fine structure was compared to a net.^[2][3][1] Bénaben explains the comparison by the blood vessels that form a network over it, and Gómez de Silva gives the derivation from the Latin noun with a “perhaps”.^[4][3] According to the DTME the Medieval Latin term was coined by Gerard of Cremona in the 12th century to render the Arabic one.^[5] Wiktionary takes it as a shortening of the phrase tunica retina (“net-like tunic”), used since the 12th century, with the noun alone from the 13th.^[1] Corominas lists it among the learned words of the family of red, which is the inherited outcome of the same Latin noun.^[6]

The same Medieval Latin word is French rétine and Italian retina.^[4][7]

For the Latin noun de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *rēti- and considers a link with Lithuanian rẽtis (“sieve”) and rẽtas (“rare, thin”), which would point to a root meaning “to be loose, sparse”.^[8] Wiktionary also mentions a borrowing from Semitic.^[1]

rienda has a separate source, Vulgar Latin *retina (“rein”), probably a postverbal noun of Latin retineo (“to hold back”) or a back-formation from retinaculum.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form occurs in a Spanish translation of Guido Lanfranco's Cirugía mayor, in a manuscript of 1481 from ⟨Guadalupe⟩.^[11] The DTME dates the word in Spanish from 1495, the translation of Bernard of Gordon's Lilio de medicina, which describes how the tela aránea grows out of the rétina, adonde aparesce la forma e la figura “where the form and the shape appear”.^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

In the surgical and anatomical books of the 15th and 16th centuries the retina is one of the tunics of the eye: the translation of Guy de Chauliac (1498) says that it is born from the optic nerve.^[12] Bernardino Montaña de Monserrate (1551) explains the name: it is called retina because it has many veins and arteries that cross like a net; a book printed in Mexico City in 1592 says the same.^[12][13]

Terreros described it as a net-shaped tunic of the eye where the images of objects are impressed, and noted that opticians also made retinas of oiled paper and frosted glass.^[7] The Academy, which had the word by 1817, first defined it as a net-shaped membrane between the cornea and the vitreous body.^[14][6] From 1843 it defined it as the third tunic of the eye, formed by the expansion of the optic nerve, where vision takes place.^[15] The DLE now describes its layers of cells and their link with the brain.^[2]

Timeline

• 1481 – the form in a manuscript of Lanfranco's Cirugía mayor.^[11]
• 1495 – the Spanish Lilio de medicina of Bernard of Gordon, the date the DTME gives.^[5][12]
• 1498 – the translation of Guy de Chauliac's surgery spells it rethina.^[12]
• 1551 – Montaña de Monserrate explains the name by the net of vessels.^[12]
• 1592 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[13]
• 1817 – first in the Academy's dictionary.^[14][6]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from Latin rete.^[16]
• 1899 – the Academy's dictionary names Medieval Latin retina.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The retina: the inner membrane of the eye, made of several layers of cells, which receives images and sends them to the brain through the optic nerve (nervio óptico).^[2][5][1]

Word family

• retiniano

Related words

• red
• retículo
• reticular
• Latin rete

Usage notes

Desprendimiento de retina “retinal detachment” is a common set phrase.^[18] In Judeo-Spanish retina also meant the mantle of a gas or incandescent lamp.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. retina
3. ^ a b Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 611
4. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. retina
5. ^ a b c d Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. retina
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 831
7. ^ a b Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 365
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. rienda
11. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. retina
12. ^ 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. retina
13. ^ 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. retina
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 760
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 635
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 930
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 871
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. retina
19. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. retina