ruina

Forms

ruina f (plural ruinas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote it ruyna as well as ruina;^[2] Góngora regularly made it a word of three syllables.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ruīna (“a rushing down, collapse; ruins”).^[3][4][5][1] Corominas leaves open whether the word was inherited or taken from Latin as a learned word: the sounds prove nothing either way, since an inherited form would soon have ended up the same.^[3] He regards all the Romance forms as very old semi-learned words, which would explain how the word could give rise to the thoroughly popular ruin “mean, wretched”.^[3] García de Diego and Bénaben call the Castilian word a learned borrowing.^[6][7]

The same Latin word is French ruine, Italian rovina and Catalan ruïna.^[3][8] Popular forms with the sense “rubble” survive in the east of the Peninsula: Catalan runa, also used in Aragon, and Aragonese and Navarrese rona.^[6]

The Latin noun is derived from ruō (“to rush, tumble down, collapse”).^[5][9] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Italic *rowe- and Proto-Indo-European *h₃rew- (“to run, hurry”), with Ancient Greek ὀρούω (oroúō, “to hurry”) among its cognates.^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Berceo's Milagros de Nuestra Señora (1220–1250), where the poet asks the Virgin to guard us so that we may not fall into la mala ruyna “evil ruin”.^[3][4][2] Here it already means a moral fall and perdition, not the collapse of a building.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Corominas finds the word rare in medieval texts: the glossaries of about 1400 and Nebrija's Spanish–Latin vocabulary lack it, though it was probably always in use.^[3] Navarrese law texts of 1300–1330 curse a perjurer with such ruyna on his house that none of his family survive.^[2] From Cristóbal de las Casas's Italian dictionary of 1570 it appears in every dictionary, and it is frequent in the Quijote for the crash of armour and for ruined buildings.^[3]

Covarrubias defined it simply as “the fall”, from Latin ruendo.^[10] Autoridades gave three senses: the act of falling, the collapse of a building or body, and the downfall of a person, family or state.^[11] The 1843 Academy dictionary added the plural for the remains of a ruined building and the military phrase batir en ruina “to batter a fortress down”.^[12] In 1884 the Academy gave the etymology from Latin ruina and the sense “great loss of one's fortune”, now often the first sense in general dictionaries.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Berceo's Milagros has la mala ruyna.^[4][3]
• 1300–1330 – the Fuero General de Navarra uses ruyna in an oath.^[2]
• 1544 – first record in the Americas, in Lima: total rruina e destruçión de los naturales.^[15]
• 1547 – first record of the derivative arruinar.^[4][3]
• 1605–1615 – frequent in the Quijote.^[3]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as “the fall”.^[10]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the plural sense “ruins of a building”.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy adds “great loss of one's fortune” and the Latin etymology.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of collapsing or being destroyed: La vieja torre amenaza ruina.^[5][16]
2. ruin: the loss of all or most of one's money and property: El juego lo llevó a la ruina.^[5][1]
3. The downfall, decline and decay of a person, family, community or state.^[5][1]
4. The cause of such a downfall: Aquella herencia fue su ruina.^[5][16]
5. (in the plural) The remains of one or more ruined buildings: las ruinas de un castillo.^[5][1]

Word family

• arruinar
• ruinoso
• ruin

Related words

• Latin ruīna
• French ruine

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ruina
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. 5, 83
4. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ruina
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ruina
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 5768
7. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. ruina
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. ruina
9. ^ 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, p. ruō
10. ^ 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. 1273
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 654
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 646
13. ^ 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. 945
14. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. ruina
15. ^ 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. ruina
16. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ruina