túnica

Forms

túnica f (plural túnicas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin tunica (“undergarment of the Romans, worn by both sexes”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas dates it from the mid-15th century, in Juan de Mena and Alfonso de Palencia, but the CDH has it in 13th-century religious and legal prose.^[2][3][5]

The inherited doublet is tonga: Judeo-Spanish used it for a tunic (1553, the Ferrara Bible), and it later came to mean “layer, pile of things set in order”.^[2][3][6] A half-popular Medieval Latin tonica already names a garment in a Galician document of 1105.^[2][7] The same Latin word gave Italian tonaca by inheritance, and Catalan túnica (1293) and Portuguese túnica are learned like the Spanish word.^[8][7][9] Medieval Catalan Jews had a popular Old Catalan tonga for a garment of theirs.^[7]

The OLD considers the Latin noun probably Semitic, of the same origin as Ancient Greek χιτών (khitṓn), and compares Biblical Hebrew כֻּתֹּנֶת (kuttṓnĕṯ, “tunic”).^[10] Wiktionary explains the Latin form by a metathesis, mentions an Etruscan intermediary as another proposal, and traces the Semitic word to a name of flax.^[1] Bénaben and Gómez de Silva also call it Semitic.^[11][12] Lewis and Short's older guess, a derivative of Latin tegō (“to cover”), is not followed by the modern dictionaries.^[13][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hits are liturgical and biblical.^[5] Alfonso X's Setenario (c. 1252–1270, in a copy of the early 14th century) compares a prayer to the chasuble that covers the túnica and the dalmatic.^[5] The Escorial New Testament, in a manuscript of the mid-13th century, tells of the soldiers dividing Christ's clothes: era al tunica que non fuera cosida “it was a tunic that had not been sewn”.^[5] The Primera Partida lists túnicas among the vestments a bishop may bless.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the word for church vestments and for the garments of the Bible and of antiquity.^[5][14] Nebrija's Latin dictionary of 1492 already speaks of the túnicas of the eye and of the testicles, the anatomical sense of a thin membrane.^[15] A Mexican medical text of 1591 has las telas o túnicas de los ojos “the coats or tunics of the eyes”.^[16] Terreros added the botanical sense, the thin skin of some fruits.^[17]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary has five senses: the sleeveless undergarment of the ancients, the woollen garment worn by religious under the habit, the skin of fruits, the membrane of organs, and a long outer garment.^[18] The DLE now puts the long, loose outer garment first and adds the zoological sense, the cellulose-like covering of the tunicates.^[4] In Uruguay a túnica is a light overall worn over the clothes, such as a schoolchild's.^[19] Túnica de Cristo is a plant like the thornapple, Datura metel.^[20][4]

Timeline

• 1105 – a half-popular tonica names a garment in a Galician document.^[2]
• before 1260 – the Escorial New Testament has la tunica of Christ.^[5]
• 1290 – an inventory lists casula e túnica e dalmática.^[5]
• mid-15th century – Corominas's first record, in Juan de Mena.^[2][3]
• 1492 – Nebrija uses túnica for membranes of the eye.^[15]
• 1553 – the inherited tonga “tunic” in the Ferrara Bible.^[2][3]
• 1576 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[16]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary gives the anatomical and botanical senses.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long, loose outer garment; a tunic: Llevaba una túnica de lino hasta los tobillos.^[4][1]
2. A woollen garment worn by some religious under the habit.^[4]
3. The garment, with or without sleeves, that the ancients wore as a kind of shirt.^[4][20]
4. (anatomy) A thin membrane covering some parts of the body: las túnicas del ojo.^[4]
5. (botany) The thin skin under the rind of some fruits or bulbs.^[4]
6. (zoology) The cellulose-like covering that wraps the whole body of the tunicates.^[4]
7. (Uruguay) A light overall worn over the clothes to protect them from dust.^[19]

Word family

• tunicado
• tunicela

Related words

• tonga
• Latin tunica
• Italian tonaca

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 695
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. túnica
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. túnica
5. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6908
7. ^ a b c Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 8, 928
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8983
9. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3412
10. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. túnica
12. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
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), p. s.v. túnica
15. ^ 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
16. ^ 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. túnica
17. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 726
18. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 868
19. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. túnica
20. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. túnica