Search
Descriptor English: Puerto Rico
Descriptor Spanish: Puerto Rico
Descriptor Puerto Rico
Scope note: Isla de las Antillas Mayores en las Indias Occidentales. Su capital es San Juan. Se trata de un Estado Libre Asociado con Estados Unidos. Fue descubierta por Colón en 1493, si bien la colonización se efectuó en 1508. Perteneció a España hasta que esta se la cedió a Estados Unidos en 1898. En el año 1952 se creó la comunidad con Estados Unidos, manteniendo su autonomía en asuntos internos. Colón llamó a esta isla San Juan, en memoria del día de San Juan, el lunes que él desembarcó, y a la bahía Puerto Rico. La isla adoptó definitivamente y de manera oficial el nombre de Puerto Rico en 1932. (Traducción libre del original: Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p987 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p436)
Descriptor Portuguese: Porto Rico
Descriptor French: Porto Rico
Tree number(s): Z01.107.084.900.750
Z01.639.880.750
RDF Unique Identifier: https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D011647
Scope note: An island in the Greater Antilles in the West Indies. Its capital is San Juan. It is a self-governing commonwealth in union with the United States. It was discovered by Columbus in 1493 but no colonization was attempted until 1508. It belonged to Spain until ceded to the United States in 1898. It became a commonwealth with autonomy in internal affairs in 1952. Columbus named the island San Juan for St. John's Day, the Monday he arrived, and the bay Puerto Rico, rich harbor. The island became Puerto Rico officially in 1932. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p987 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p436)
Annotation: an island in the Greater Antilles in the West Indies; for Puerto Rico as a geog entity (as in epidemiol articles) & for Puerto Ricans in Puerto Rico; for Puerto Ricans living in the United States as an ethnic group, coord PUERTO RICO /ethnol (NIM) + HISPANIC OR LATINO (IM)
Allowable Qualifiers: EH ethnology
EP epidemiology
DeCS ID: 12083
Unique ID: D011647
Documents indexed in the Virtual Health Library (VHL): Click here to access the VHL documents
Date Established: 1966/01/01
Date of Entry: 1999/01/01
Revision Date: 2012/07/03
Puerto Rico - Preferred
Concept UI M0018118
Scope note An island in the Greater Antilles in the West Indies. Its capital is San Juan. It is a self-governing commonwealth in union with the United States. It was discovered by Columbus in 1493 but no colonization was attempted until 1508. It belonged to Spain until ceded to the United States in 1898. It became a commonwealth with autonomy in internal affairs in 1952. Columbus named the island San Juan for St. John's Day, the Monday he arrived, and the bay Puerto Rico, rich harbor. The island became Puerto Rico officially in 1932. (From Webster's New Geographical Dictionary, 1988, p987 & Room, Brewer's Dictionary of Names, 1992, p436)
Preferred term Puerto Rico



We want your feedback on the new DeCS / MeSH website

We invite you to complete a survey that will take no more than 3 minutes.

Go to survey