muñeca

Inherited from Old Spanish munneca, from Old Spanish monneka (“milestone or landmark”) (a. 1011), from a pre-Roman substrate of Iberia, possibly pre-Indo-European.

Compare Basque muino (“hill”). Its original meaning was first 'milestone or landmark', then 'protuberance', from which both senses of 'wrist' and 'doll' come. Some have suggested it may have originated from monnula (“(female) friend”). Compare Spanish moño (“a bow, ribbon”) and muñón (“stump”); see also Portuguese boneca (“doll”). Attested as early as 1011, first attested as 'doll' in 1400.

• IPA^(key): /muˈɲeka/ [muˈɲe.ka]

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eka
• Syllabification: mu‧ñe‧ca

muñeca f (plural muñecas)

1. (anatomy) wrist

   Synonym: carpo

2. female equivalent of muñeco (“doll”)

• → Bikol Central: munyeka
• → Catalan: monyeca
• → Chamorro: muñeka
• → Galician: boneca
• → Hiligaynon: monyeka
• → Moroccan Arabic: منيكة (munīka)
• → Portuguese: boneca, bonecra (obsolete or regional)
  • → Malay: boneka
    • Indonesian: boneka
  • → Tetum: boneka
• → Portuguese: munheca
• → Tagalog: manyika
• → Tausug: munyika'

• “muñeco”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28