The misadventures of the word Añazme

The article deals with the process of mutation suffered by the Hebrew word nézem that designates a golden nose ring. It was adapted as añazme in some passages of the medieval Spanish translations of the Bible and in the Renaissance printed version, but it was never used in the living language. Even so, since 1611 it has been included in Spanish dictionaries, becoming synonymous with ‘ajorca’, a type of bracelet. Then misguided etymologists have tried to derive añazme from Arabic and have associated to it the new meaning ‘pearl necklace’, a sense with which it has begun to be used in translations from Arabic. The process is illustrative as a reflection of centuries of inertia in a collective lexicographical work where the correct methodological premises that are postulated in a theoretical way are not applied in practice.