y

Forms

y^[1] Old Spanish wrote the conjunction e, et, y, i, hi, hy, ye and ya.^[2][3] Asturian has ya.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin et (“and”), through Old Spanish e.^[5][1][3] The earliest texts write that form, and Nebrija (c. 1495) gives i beside it.^[6][7] The form e survives before words that begin with /i/.^[8][9]

The same Latin word is Portuguese e, Galician e, Catalan i, Italian e and Romanian e.^[3][1]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *eti and Proto-Indo-European *h₁eti (“still, also”), perhaps an old locative of a root meaning “to go beyond”; its cognates include Ancient Greek ἔτι (éti, “still, further”) and Gothic 𐌹𐌸 (iþ, “but”).^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Cantar de mio Cid (c. 1140, in a 14th-century copy) has e: „tornava la cabeça e estávalos catando” “he turned his head and looked at them”.^[6] The first record in the CDH from a text without a later copy is the Cortes of Benavente of 1202.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish texts write the conjunction e, et and y, and Alfonso X's Lapidario has the Latin spelling et.^[2][11] Nebrija gives e and i as the Spanish forms of the conjunction, Latin et, que, atque.^[12][7] In the Americas, a document from Darién of 1514 has mil y quinientos y catorce, while documents from Mexico City of 1525 have both y and e.^[13]

The Diccionario de Autoridades notes that e had been the usual conjunction but that y had replaced it, e being kept only before a word beginning with i.^[9] The DLE describes the same rule today: e before /i/ (padre e hijo), but not before hie- or y, nor at the start of a question.^[8] In Mexico, Chile and Paraguay y can add emphasis to wishes and commands.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1140 – the Cantar de mio Cid uses the form e.^[6]
• 1202 – e in the Cortes of Benavente, the earliest record in a text with no later copy.^[6]
• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario writes the conjunction et.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives e and i as the conjunction.^[7][12]
• 1514 – y in a document from Darién.^[13]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades says y has replaced e.^[9]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. and: joins words or clauses; in a list it usually comes only before the last item: pan, queso y vino.^[5][1]
2. At the start of a sentence, adds emphasis: ¡Y si no viene nadie!^[5]
3. Between two instances of the same word, expresses endless repetition: horas y horas.^[5]
4. In numbers, joins tens and units: treinta y cinco; in arithmetic, plus.^[1]
5. (informal) What about, where is: ¿Y las llaves?^[1][15]

Related words

• e
• Latin et

Usage notes

The same spelling is also the name of the letter y, called i griega or ye.^[5][15] An obsolete adverb y “there” comes from Latin ibi, perhaps influenced by hic (“here”);^[16] Alfonso X uses it for “there” and “of it”, and the Academy's dictionary of 1884 marks it as obsolete.^{[5][12][11][16]}

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. y
3. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2475
4. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. ya
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. y
6. ^ 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. y
7. ^ a b c Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 340
8. ^ a b 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. e
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. s.v. e
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ 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. y
12. ^ a b c 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, p. s.v. y
13. ^ 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. e
14. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. y
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. y
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. 1103