ventana

Forms

ventana f (plural ventanas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ventana, inherited from Vulgar Latin *ventāna, from Latin ventus (“wind”) and the suffix -āna.^[1][2][3] Corominas and the DLE treat it as a derivative of the word for wind, viento.^[4][5][6] Its first senses, “air hole” and “nostril”, show this origin.^[4]

The other Romance languages kept Latin fenestra, the source of hiniestra, and the Spanish word has no relative except Old Galician-Portuguese ventãa, today Portuguese venta “nostril”.^[5][7] Meringer took it for a calque of Gothic *windaugo, but Corominas finds this uncertain, since the sense “window” is secondary.^[5] Meyer-Lübke doubted it too.^[5] Gómez de Silva compares the English word window, from Old Norse vindauga (“wind-eye”).^[8]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“blowing”), the present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”).^[9][1] Its cognates include Old High German wint and the English word wind.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Alexandre (c. 1250) is the first text with the word, in the sense “air hole” of a ship or a tent.^[5][4][11] In the hunting book Moamín (1250, in a copy of the same century) las uentanas de las narizes are the nostrils: echen les en amas las uentanas de las narizes tres destellos “let them put three drops into both nostrils”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

In Old Spanish ventana was first a vent or opening for air: in a ship, a tent, or the coat of mail (ventana de la loriga, about 1300), and then the nostril, called simply ventana by Don Juan Manuel about 1325.^[5][4] The opening in a house wall appears in the CDH early in the 14th century: in a register of houses (after 1303) salen ventanas de las casas “windows of the houses open” onto a yard.^[12] Corominas dates the sense “large opening in a wall” to about 1400, in the Toledo glossary, where the Escorial glossary still has finiestra.^[5]

Ventana took over from the old word hiniestra because that word clashed with iniesta “broom”, from Latin genista.^[4][5] The change was slow: Nebrija still has ventana o hiniestra, and hiniestra was possible in Juan de Valdés's time.^[5][14] Covarrubias (1611) explains both purposes of a window, light and air, and describes the custom of hazer ventana: in some towns ladies sat at their windows at certain hours of the afternoon while the gallants walked past.^[15] Autoridades adds the shutter that closes the opening.^[16]

The modern senses include the computer window and the inset on a television screen.^[17][6] In Guatemala and Bolivia ventana also means “eye”, and in Chile a free period in a timetable.^[18] The word passed into Papiamentu bentana, Tagalog bintana and Guarani ovetã, and back into ventana “window” in 1813.^[1][2]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – ventana “air hole” in the Libro de Alexandre.^[5][4]
• 1250 – uentanas de las narizes “nostrils” in the Moamín.^[12]
• after 1303 – windows of houses in the Becerro de visitaciones de casas y heredades.^[12]
• c. 1325 – ventana alone for “nostril” in Don Juan Manuel's Libro de la caza.^[5][4]
• c. 1400 – ventana “opening in a wall” in the Toledo glossary.^[5][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives ventana o hiniestra for Latin fenestra.^[14]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico: la ventana de la casa.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the custom of hazer ventana.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy records arrojar por la ventana “to waste”.^[20]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “De viento”.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. A window: an opening in a wall, usually above the floor, for looking out and letting in light and air.^[6][1]
2. The frame of wood, metal or other material with glass that closes such an opening: Cambiaron todas las ventanas de la casa.^[6][1]
3. Each of the nostrils.^[6][1]
4. (computing) A window: a box on the screen of a computer or other device whose contents can be handled apart from the rest.^[6][1]
5. (television) An inset on a television screen showing images other than the main broadcast.^[6]
6. (Guatemala, Bolivia) An eye.^[18]
7. (Chile) A free period in a timetable of work or classes.^[18]

Word family

• ventanaje
• ventanal
• ventanear
• ventanero
• ventanilla
• ventano

Related words

• viento
• hiniestra
• ventilar
• Latin ventus
• Portuguese venta

Usage notes

Set phrases include tirar or echar la casa por la ventana “to spare no expense” and arrojar algo por la ventana “to waste something; to throw away a chance”.^[6][22][1] Judeo-Spanish has the proverb por mankansa de una ventana no se eskurese una kaza “a house is not dark for want of one window”.^[23]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 3481
3. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. venta
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ventana
5. ^ 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, 806
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ventana
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. ventana
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. ventana
12. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ventana
13. ^ 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. ventana
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 429
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. 1378
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 450
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. ventana
18. ^ 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. ventana
19. ^ 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. ventana
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 884
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1079
22. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ventana
23. ^ Nehama, Joseph (1977), Dictionnaire du judéo-espagnol, Madrid: CSIC, p. s.v. ventana