senda

Forms

senda f (plural sendas)^[1] Old Spanish also had semeda and semda.^[2][3] Asturian has sienda and xenda, and the Mozarabic of Murcia survives in xenta, senta, chenta and chinta.^[2][4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sēmita (“side path, footpath”).^[5][6][7][1] Old Spanish had older forms semeda and semda, which keep the /m/ of the Latin word.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese senda, Galician senda, Asturian sienda, Catalan senda and French sente.^[2][8][9] The Mozarabic form survives in Murcia as xenta.^[5] The synonym sendero comes from the Latin adjective sēmitārius, “going by side paths”, through a phrase like “a road like a path”, and has the same origin as Catalan sender and French sentier.^[5][6]

The OLD analyses the Latin word as sē- (“apart”) and a noun of meō (“to go, pass”),^[10] and de Vaan lists it among the derivatives of that verb, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂mey- (“to exchange”).^[11] Wiktionary notes that the LIV prefers a root *mey-.^[1] The DHLF and Gómez de Silva call the origin uncertain.^[9][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a charter of 1207.^[5][6] In Herman the German's version of the Psalter (c. 1240–1272) the psalmist asks Tus carreras, Sennor, me demuestra, y enssénname tus sendas “show me your ways, Lord, and teach me your paths”, and a boundary charter of 1252 follows a road ho se desvia la senda “where the path turns off”.^[13] The sense was a narrow footpath, as opposed to the road.^[13][14]

Semantic evolution

Juan Ruiz contrasted the path with the main road, tomé senda por carrera “I took the path for the highway”, and also used senda for a course of conduct.^[5] Alfonso X's Estoria de España opposes the hidden paths that pilgrims once took to the open road to Santiago.^[14] Nebrija (c. 1495) equated senda o sendero with Latin semita.^[15]

Covarrubias (1611) defined it as a narrow, little-trodden way and repeated Varro's derivation of semita from semi iter “half a road”.^[16] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1739) gave the narrow path off the highway and a moral sense, the means chosen to reach an end, with quotations from Saint Teresa and Lope.^[17] The Academy in 1843 defined it as a way wide enough for one person or one horse, and in 1869 allowed it for any road.^[18][19] The derivative asendereado “worn out with toil” is recorded from 1605.^[6]

The first record in the Americas is from Mexico in 1532.^[20] In Cuba and Uruguay senda is a lane of a road, and also a lane in sport; in Cuba it is also a railway track.^[21][7]

Timeline

• 1207 – first record, in a charter.^[5][6]
• c. 1240–1272 – sendas “paths” in Herman the German's Psalter.^[13]
• 1252 – a boundary charter uses it for a path off a road.^[13]
• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz: tomé senda por carrera.^[5]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: senda o sendero, Latin semita.^[15]
• 1532 – the first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as a narrow, little-trodden way.^[16]
• 1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the moral sense “means to an end”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A footpath or track, narrower than a vereda, made mainly by people on foot and small livestock: Bajamos al río por una senda entre los pinos.^[7][1][22]
2. (figurative) A way or means of doing or achieving something; a course of conduct.^[7][22]
3. (Cuba, Uruguay) A lane (carril) of a road, for a single line of vehicles; also a lane on a track or in a pool.^[7][21]
4. (Cuba) A railway track.^[21]

Word family

• sendero

Related words

• vereda
• Latin sēmita
• Portuguese senda

Usage notes

In the earliest texts the plural sendas is often the feminine of the distributive sendos “one each”, as in the Fuero de Zorita, ayan sendas cauallerias “let them have one share of the booty each”, a different word.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
3. ^ 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. 1020
4. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. xenda
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 204
6. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. senda
7. ^ 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. senda
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7813
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 639
13. ^ 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
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 415
16. ^ 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. 1292
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 78
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 661
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 707
20. ^ 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. senda
21. ^ 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. senda
22. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. senda