Notas etimológicas sobre columpio y sus variantes en las lenguas de la Península Ibérica

Abstract

The origin of the lexical family made up by the Castilian word columpio and its other formally related variants in Ibero-Romance (e.g., columbio, columbeo, colombo, galumbo, etc.) is still controversial. In this article, the state of the art of the etymology of this set of words is carefully reviewed (namely, those proposals that tie their origin either to Latin columba, to a variety of Greek lexical items, or to a phonosymbolic origin). Next, based on geolinguistic, lexicographic and textual data, it is argued that columpio likely stems from the Latin verb *plumbiāre. The detailed phonetic analysis of the geolinguistics, lexicographic and textual data better supports the sound change [mp] > [mb] rather than [mb] > [mp]. Additionally, those data also help to explain the formal modifications undergone by *plumbiāre in the context of the Basque-Latin/Romance contact in the Western Pyrenees.