sobrino

Forms

sobrino m (plural sobrinos, feminine sobrina, feminine plural sobrinas)^[1] The feminine is sobrina.^[1][2] Early charters write subrino (921), and a confirmation of the Fuero of Valle de Fenar has sobrin;^[1] Asturian still says sobrín.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish sobrino, inherited from Latin sobrīnus (“second cousin”).^[3][5][2][1] In Latin the word named the son of a first cousin and more distant cousins, while “first cousin” was cōnsobrīnus.^[5][6] When “first cousin” came to be expressed in Spain by adding prīmus (“first”) to the word for cousin (whence primo), the Latin word was left for the more distant collateral kin, and then, as Latin nepōs (“nephew”) fell out of use in the centre and west of the Peninsula, it took over the sense “nephew”.^[3][5] The DLE glosses the Latin word as “first cousin”, and Lewis & Short as “cousin on the mother's side”.^[2][7] Mozarabic still used subrina for a female cousin in a codex of 1049.^[3]

The same word is Portuguese sobrinho, Galician sobriño and Asturian sobrín.^[1][3][8] Catalan and French kept the descendants of the Latin word for “nephew”: Catalan nebot and French neveu.^[9]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *swezrīnos (“of the sister”), a derivative of the word for “sister”, soror.^[1] Wiktionary explains the ⟨so-⟩ as remade after the Latin word for “sister”.^[1] De Vaan derives the family from Proto-Indo-European *suésōr (“sister”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas finds subrino in a charter of 921 and sobrino from 955 in Oelschläger's list.^[3][5] In the Cantar de mio Cid it is already “nephew”: it is used for Félez Muñoz and Pero Bermúdez, both the hero's nephews by blood.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the Cid on, sobrino means the son of one's brother or sister, as it does in Juan Ruiz, Don Juan Manuel and texts of every period.^[3] Alfonso X's legal prose uses it in the same sense.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 gives the Latin equivalents nepos ex fratre and nepos ex sorore.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades separates the sobrino carnal, the child of a brother or sister, from the sobrino segundo, the child of a first cousin, and records the proverb A quien Dios no le dio hijos, el diablo le dio sobrinos, said of people who have no children of their own and inherit cares through their relatives.^[13] The Academy kept both senses in 1884, and Moliner adds sobrino tercero for further degrees.^[14][15] In Argentina sobrino nieto is the child of a nephew or niece.^[16]

Timeline

• 921 – subrino in a charter.^[3][5]
• 955 – the spelling sobrino appears.^[3]
• 1049 – Mozarabic subrina “female cousin” in the Escorial canonical codex.^[3]
• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses it for the hero's nephews.^[3]
• c. 1212 – the feminine sobrina in a charter of Santo Domingo de la Calzada.^[17]
• 1550 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the son of a brother or of a sister.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades distinguishes sobrino carnal from sobrino segundo.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. nephew;^[1] (feminine) niece: the child of one's brother or sister: Mi sobrina cumple diez años el sábado.^[2][1]
2. The child of one's first cousin, in full sobrino segundo.^[2][15]

Word family

• resobrino

Related words

• primo
• sor
• nepotismo
• Latin soror
• Portuguese sobrinho

Usage notes

Sobrino carnal is the child of a brother or sister, and sobrino nieto the grandchild of a brother or sister.^[2] Sobrino also covers the child of a brother-in-law or sister-in-law.^[9][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. sobrino
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, 280
4. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sobrino
5. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sobrino
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. sobrīnus
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. sōbrīnus
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3127
9. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sobrino
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. sobrino
12. ^ 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. 1304
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 132
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 983
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sobrino
16. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 452
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sobrino, a
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. sobrino
19. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 651