siesta

Forms

siesta f (plural siestas, diminutive siestecita)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish siesta, inherited from Latin sexta (“sixth”), short for hōra sexta (“the sixth hour”).^[2][3][1][4] The Romans counted the hours from sunrise, so the sixth hour fell at about noon; from there the word passed to “the hottest time of the day” and then to “the sleep taken after the midday meal”.^[2][5][6] The Latin form is the feminine of sextus (“sixth”), agreeing with the implied word for “hour”.^[1]

The same word is Portuguese sesta, Galician sesta and Catalan sesta.^[7][8][1] The learned form of the same Latin word is sexto, and Wiktionary also names sesma as a doublet.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

In the Razón de amor (c. 1205–1250, in a manuscript of 1250–1260) the poet lies down in a meadow to escape the noonday heat: Sobre un prado pus mi tiesta, que no m fiziese mal la siesta “I laid my head on a meadow so that the midday heat would not harm me”.^[9][10] Berceo uses it for the canonical hour of sext.^[11][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages siesta meant both the time after noon and the heat of that hour: the Gran conquista de Ultramar and Juan Ruiz use it for heat, and Nebrija in 1495 renders siesta en el medio día with Latin aestus “heat”.^[4][12] Alfonso X's histories have both “the time after noon” and the rest taken then, as when Moses sits by a well por tener y la siesta & folgar “to take the siesta there and rest”.^[13]

Cervantes has dormir la siesta and reposar la siesta.^[14][4] Covarrubias in 1611 derives it from the sixth hour, which is noon, and the Academy's first dictionary defines it as the hot time after midday and also as the music sung in cathedrals at that hour.^[15][16] Today the first sense is the sleep after eating.^[3] The word has spread to many languages: siesta is recorded in English from the 1650s, and the French form is sieste.^[17][1]

Timeline

• c. 1205–1250 – the Razón de amor uses siesta for the midday heat.^[9][10]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the date the Breve diccionario gives.^[2][4]
• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General estoria uses it for the rest after the meal.^[13]
• 1495 – Nebrija records siesta and the verb sestear.^[12][2]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1589 – the derivative resestero, later resistero, is first recorded.^[4]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from the sixth hour.^[15]
• 1650s – English borrows the word.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nap taken after the midday meal: Después de comer siempre echa una siesta corta.^[3][1]
2. The time set aside for sleeping or resting after the meal.^[3]
3. The time after midday when the heat is greatest.^[3]
4. (historical) Music sung or played in churches in the afternoon.^[3][16]

Word family

• sestear
• resistero

Related words

• sexto
• seis
• Latin sextus
• Portuguese sesta
• English siesta

Usage notes

Dormir or echar la siesta is to have a nap after eating; the siesta del carnero is a nap taken before the midday meal.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. siesta
3. ^ 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. siesta
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. 5, 192
5. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. siesta
6. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. siesta
7. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. sextus
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3074
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. siesta
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. siesta
11. ^ Lanchetas, Rufino (1900), Gramática y vocabulario de las obras de Gonzalo de Berceo, Madrid: Sucesores de Rivadeneyra, p. 712
12. ^ a b 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. siesta
13. ^ 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. siesta
14. ^ 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. 1033
15. ^ 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. 1298
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 110
17. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
18. ^ 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. siesta