vientre

Forms

vientre m (plural vientres)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish vientre, inherited from Latin venter (“belly, abdomen”).^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary derives the Spanish form from the Latin accusative.^[1] Corominas notes that the word has been in general use at every period and is common to all the Romance languages.^[2]

The same Latin word is Portuguese ventre, Galician ventre, Catalan ventre, French ventre, Italian ventre and Romanian vintre.^[5][6] García de Diego gives the Castilian form for Asturian and Aragonese too.^[5]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *we(n)d-ri- and, with doubt, Proto-Indo-European *(H)ued-ro- (“belonging to the belly”).^[7] He mentions Hamp's view that it was the same word as uterus, with a nasal taken from vēsīca (“bladder”), and finds that explanation ad hoc.^[7] Wiktionary gives the Proto-Indo-European form as *wend-tri-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), where Rebecca's twins struggle in her womb: combatianse en el vientre.^[8][9] The Fuero de Zorita (1218–c. 1250) also has the sense “womb, unborn child”, and Berceo, Corominas's first record, the belly swollen with humours.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used the word for the belly and for the womb;^[10] Alfonso X's Lapidario speaks of women who carry their children alive en los vientres.^[10] Covarrubias gave barriga as another name for it, recorded that the unborn child was called vientre while its sex was unknown, and listed vientre de carnero, the cheap dish of tripe.^[11] Autoridades added the entrails of slaughtered animals.^[12] By 1884 the Academy also gave the bulge of a vessel, any large inner cavity, and the legal sense “mother”, in the maxim el parto sigue al vientre “the child follows the mother”.^[13] Physics now uses it for the point of greatest amplitude between two nodes of a vibrating body.^[4] In Ecuador and Uruguay it is a pregnant animal.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – vientre “womb” in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar.^[8]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the date of first record in Corominas.^[3][2]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario uses the plural uientres.^[10]
• 1548 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico City: los herederos de un vientre.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it also barriga.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the legal sense “mother”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (anatomy) The abdomen, the cavity of the body of vertebrates that holds the main organs of digestion and of the urinary and genital systems.^[4][1]
2. (anatomy) The organs in that cavity, especially once taken out.^[4]
3. (anatomy) The belly, the outer region of the body over the abdomen: Se tumbó sobre el vientre.^[4][1]
4. The foetus (feto), or the womb in which it is carried.^[4][1]
5. The belly of a vessel (panza).^[4]
6. A large inner cavity of something.^[4]
7. (physics) The middle part between two nodes of a vibrating body, where the oscillation is widest.^[4]
8. (law, rare) The mother, with regard to her children.^[4]
9. (Ecuador, Uruguay, rural) A pregnant animal.^[14]

Word family

• ventregada
• ventrudo

Related words

• ventral
• ventrículo
• ventrisca
• Latin venter

Usage notes

Set phrases include bajo vientre “lower abdomen”, hacer de vientre “to have a bowel movement” and danza del vientre “belly dance”.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 808
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vientre
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. vientre
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7079
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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
8. ^ 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. vientre
9. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. vientre
10. ^ a b c 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. vientre
11. ^ 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. 1387
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6
13. ^ 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. 1089
14. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. vientre
15. ^ 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. vientre