sueño

Forms

sueño m (plural sueños)^[1] Old Spanish wrote suenno, also sueno.^[2][3] Asturian distinguishes sueñu “sleep” from suañu “dream”.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin somnus (“sleep”) (Old Spanish suenno), and Spanish merged with it Latin somnium (“dream”), a derivative of ⟨somnus⟩.^[6][7][8][1] From the first literary text on, ⟨sueño⟩ has had the senses of both Latin words.^[6] The DLE gives only ⟨somnus⟩.^[8] Wiktionary lists the two Latin sources separately.^[1]

Corominas explains the merger by sound change: ⟨somnus⟩ regularly gave ⟨sueño⟩, and although the yod of ⟨somnium⟩ might have stopped the diphthong, the regular result was most likely the same, as in lueñe from longē and cuero from corium.^[6] Even if a local form without the diphthong had existed for “dream”, there must also have been a ⟨sueño⟩ for it, and so the language could not keep the two meanings apart; context was enough to avoid ambiguity.^[6] The only attempt at a distinction was ensueño, a late learned imitation of Latin insomnium (itself modelled on Greek ἐνύπνιον (enúpnion)), not recorded before 1580, in Herrera, and never used systematically.^[6][7]

The other Romance languages mostly kept the Latin pair apart: Portuguese sono and Portuguese sonho, Galician sono and Galician soño, Catalan son and Catalan somni, French somme and French songe, Italian sonno and Italian sogno, though even there the senses sometimes mix.^[6][9][1]

The Latin noun for “sleep” goes back to *swepnos and *swépnos (“sleep”), from the root *swep- (“to sleep”), and the one for “dream” reflects *swopnjom.^[10][1] Cognates include ὕπνος (húpnos, “sleep”), स्वप्न (svápna, “sleep, dream”), sãpnas (“dream”) and svefn (“sleep”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) already has both senses: the hero falls into a sweet sleep, and the angel Gabriel comes to him en sueño “in a dream”: „un sueño·l' priso dulce, tan bien se adurmió; el ángel Gabriel a él vino en sueño”.^[6][7][3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso X's prose used suenno for the act of sleeping, for dreaming, for what is dreamt and for sleepiness, the four senses the word still has.^[11] Nebrija gave only somnus, sopor and quies, but Percyvall in 1591 translated it as both “sleep” and “a dream”.^[12][13] Autoridades listed “act of sleeping”, “what is seen in dreams” and “sleepiness” (tengo sueño).^[14]

The sense “dream” stayed dominant over ensueño in the Golden Age, in Góngora, the Quijote and Calderón's La vida es sueño.^[6] From it grew the sense “unrealistic hope or project” and the phrase sueño dorado “one's dearest wish”, which the Academy at first admitted only in the plural.^[8][15] The DLE also records the name of a licentious 18th-century dance and the botanical sense, the position plant leaves take at night.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses sueño for “sleep” and “dream”.^[6][7]
• c. 1140 – the verb soñar first recorded.^[7]
• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar heads a chapter Del suenno de Josep “Of Joseph's dream”.^[3]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X uses it for sleeping, dreaming and sleepiness.^[11]
• 1490 – soñoliento first recorded.^[7]
• 1580 – ensueño first recorded, in Herrera's commentary on Garcilaso.^[6][7]
• 1591 – Percyvall translates sueño as “sleepe, a dreame”.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary lists phrases such as conciliar el sueño and el sueño de la liebre.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. sleep, the act of sleeping.^[8][1]
2. sleepiness, the wish to sleep: tener sueño.^[8][1]
3. Dreaming: the act of picturing events while asleep.^[8]
4. A dream: the events or images pictured while asleep.^[8][1]
5. Something without reality or basis, especially a hope or plan unlikely to come true: Viajar a la Luna era su sueño.^[8][17]
6. A licentious dance of the 18th century.^[8][17]
7. (botany) The position taken by the leaves, leaflets or petals of a plant at night or in strong light and heat.^[8]

Word family

• soñar
• soñoliento
• ensueño
• soñador

Related words

• insomnio
• somnífero
• sonámbulo
• Latin somnus
• Latin somnium
• Portuguese sono
• Portuguese sonho

Usage notes

El sueño de la liebre is said of someone who pretends;^[8] sueño dorado is one's dearest wish.^[8] Mexico says sueño guajiro for an impossible fantasy.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. sueño
3. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. sueño
4. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. sueñu
5. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. suañu
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 327
7. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sueño
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. sueño
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. somnium
10. ^ 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. s.v. somnus
11. ^ 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. sueño
12. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 419
13. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 217
14. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. sueño
15. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 344
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. 995
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sueño
18. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sueño