urna

Forms

urna f (plural urnas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin urna (“bucket of a well; cinerary or voting urn; a liquid measure”), a learned word.^[2][3][4][5] A dialect variant urnia, in Salamanca, Sayago, El Bierzo, Asturias and Galicia, and in Mexico with the sense “coffin”, shows that the learned word took root early in part of Spain.^[2]

Old Castilian had a popular outcome orna “trough”, recorded in Navarrese in the 13th century; crossed with Latin dōlium (“large jar”) the word also gave duerna and dornajo, and Portuguese dorna.^[6][7][8] The learned word is Catalan urna, recorded from about 1460, Portuguese urna, from the 16th century, French urne, from 1487, and Italian urna.^{[9][10][11][1]}

The OLD derives the Latin word probably from *urc-na, comparing urceus (“pitcher”) and Ancient Greek ὕρχη (húrkhē, “jar”).^[12][1] Varro connected it with ūrīnor (“to dive”), because urns “dive” when water is drawn.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first hit, in a medical text of before 1400, is the name of a star in the sign of Aquarius, which the philosophers call vrna.^[14] Alfonso de Toledo's Invencionario (1453–1467) explains it for the vessel kept in the Ark of the Covenant: vna vrna llena de magna, esto es vna tinaja, “an urn full of manna, that is, a large jar”.^[14] Corominas's first records are later: about 1520 in Padilla, and 1570 in C. de las Casas, who glosses it as an ancient vessel.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Alfonso de Palencia in 1490 seems to define it only as a Latin word.^[2] Autoridades puts the funerary urn first, the casket of marble, silver or gold in which the ancients kept the ashes of the dead, and says that the great caskets of kings were now called so; its second sense is a glass display case for small figures.^[15][2] The Academy's 1884 dictionary adds the box for papers in drawings and secret votes and the jar carried by personified rivers.^[16] The voting sense comes first in the modern DLE.^[4]

In Venezuela, Nicaragua and Chile it means a coffin, and in Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico and Uruguay a revolving drum for lottery tickets.^[17][4]

Timeline

• before 1400 – a medical text names a star in Aquarius vrna.^[14]
• 1453–1467 – Alfonso de Toledo glosses vrna as tinaja “large jar”.^[14]
• 1487 – Hernando de Talavera writes of la urna de maná.^[14]
• c. 1520 – Corominas's first record, in Padilla.^[2][3]
• 1562 – the dialect form urnias in Puebla, Mexico, for vessels of saffron.^[18]
• 1570 – C. de las Casas glosses it as an ancient vessel.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary records the ballot box.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ballot box; the box from which numbers are drawn in a lottery.^[4][1]
2. A glass case that keeps an image or other precious object visible and free from dust.^[4][19]
3. An urn: a box or vessel of metal, stone or another material used for keeping money, remains or the ashes of the dead: Guardaron las cenizas del abuelo en una urna de bronce.^[4][19][1]
4. (historical) A Roman liquid measure.^[4][19]
5. (Venezuela, Nicaragua, Chile) A coffin (ataúd).^[4][17]
6. (Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Uruguay) A revolving drum for lottery tickets or numbered balls.^[17][20]

Related words

• duerna
• dornajo
• Latin urna

Usage notes

Acudir a las urnas and similar phrases refer to voting in an election.^[4][1] Wiktionary lists sondeo a pie de urna “exit poll”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 721
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. urna
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. urna
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. urna
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. urna
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9086
8. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. urna
9. ^ 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, 990
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3442
11. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. urne
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ 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, p. s.v. urna
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, s.v. urna
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1064
17. ^ 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. urna
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. urna
19. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. urna
20. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 243