zona

Forms

zona f (plural zonas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin zōna (“girdle, belt; zone of the earth”), which is from Ancient Greek ζώνη (zṓnē, “girdle”), a derivative of ζώννυμι (zṓnnumi, “to gird”).^[2][3][4][5] The Greek noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *yoh₃snéh₂, from the root *yeh₃s- (“to gird”), and is cognate with Old Church Slavonic поꙗсъ (pojasŭ).^[1][6]

In Latin the word already named the climatic zones of the earth, and in Late Latin medicine the shingles, a rash that often runs round the waist like a belt.^[7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is in the first part of Alfonso X's General Estoria (c. 1275, in a 13th-century manuscript), where the speaker says he has always pondered las zonas o cintas de las estrellas e del cielo “the zones or belts of the stars and of the heavens”.^[9][10] The same work also uses the word for a sash or belt and for the five zones of the earth.^[10] The DCECH's first record is later, in Juan de Mena (1438).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Juan de Mena used it for the zodiac, explaining it himself as the belt that holds the twelve signs.^[2] In Palencia's dictionary, in Quevedo and in Saavedra Fajardo it is only a term of cosmography.^[2] Covarrubias calls it a Greek word for a belt, and says the circles of the sphere are so called.^[11] Autoridades records the sense “band, sash” in the poet Silvestre and describes the five zones of the astronomers and geographers.^[12][2]

The Academy added the herpes rash in 1869, and in 1884 the senses “large band of land” and the zone of a sphere in geometry.^[13][14] Corominas notes that by his time educated speakers used it widely for “region, tract of land”.^[2] Today the word also names areas fixed by administrative or political limits, and phrases such as zona azul for a paid parking area.^[4] In Cuba and Nicaragua it has been used for a red-light district or a brothel.^[15][16]

Timeline

• c. 1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses zonas of the heavens and of the earth.^[9][10]
• 1223–1300 – the DEMel also records the word in the Semejanza del mundo.^[17]
• 1438 – Juan de Mena uses it for the zodiac.^[2][3]
• 1532 – first record in the Americas, in Mexico City, already for “area”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the circles of the sphere.^[11]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades has “band, sash” and the five zones.^[12]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the skin eruption.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology and the geometric sense.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strip or band.^[4]
2. A large stretch of land shaped like a band.^[4]
3. An area of ground or of a surface within certain limits: Hay una zona húmeda en la pared.^[4][1]
4. An area whose limits are set for administrative or political reasons: zona fiscal.^[4]
5. (geography) Each of the five parts of the earth's surface divided by the tropics and the polar circles: zona tórrida.^[4][12]
6. (geometry) The part of the surface of a sphere between two parallel planes.^[4]
7. (medicine, masculine) shingles, herpes zoster.^[4]

Related words

• zóster
• Latin zōna
• French zone

Usage notes

In the medical sense the DLE gives the word as masculine, el zona.^[4] French also uses zona for shingles.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. 6, 859
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. zona
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. zona
5. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ζώνη
6. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. s.v. zona
7. ^ a b Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. zona
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. zōna
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. zona
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. zona
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. 1399
12. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 569
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 810
14. ^ 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. 1111
15. ^ Suárez, Constantino (1921), Vocabulario cubano, La Habana: Librería Cervantes / Madrid: Perlado, Páez y Compañía, p. 533
16. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. zona
17. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. zona
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. zona