aigua

Forms

aigua f (plural aigües)^[1] Old Catalan wrote aygua and ayga.^[2][3][4] The spelling aigo appears in a Mallorcan account book of 1441.^[5] The pronunciation varies across the language area: àigua in most of Catalonia and the north of Valencia, àiga in Roussillon and in a belt from Andorra through the Penedès and the Vallès, àigo in Mallorca and àigu in Menorca and Formentera; much of Valencia, south of Castelló, has a pronunciation with /aw/ in the first syllable.^[2][6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan aygua, the usual spelling of the medieval texts, which is inherited from Latin aqua (“water”).^{[2][6][7][8][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan aiga, Spanish agua, French eau, Italian acqua and Romanian apă.^[9][1] The troubadours wrote Old Occitan aigua as Old Catalan did.^[10][11]

The /i/ before the consonant, in the Catalan word as in Occitan aiga, is unexpected.^[2] Coromines finds no satisfactory explanation for it; he mentions, without accepting either, a Latin pronunciation that split /k/ and /w/ between two syllables, and the variant spelt ⟨augua⟩, which is easier to explain and is recorded in scattered points of the Peninsula and southern France.^[2] Spanish dialects, Leonese and Aragonese also have forms with /w/ moved into the first syllable.^[12]

The Latin word comes from *akʷā; its closest cognates are Germanic, 𐌰𐍈𐌰 (aƕa) and aha.^[13] Wiktionary takes it back to *h₂ekʷeh₂.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines gives as the first record a document of 1169 in the cartulary of Poblet, which speaks of boschages et las aiguas “woods and waters”.^[2] In 1204 a rule of the Templars allows a brother's wine to be taken away and water given him instead (tolre son vi e dar-li ayga).^[2][6] In these first records the word means water, and in the plural the waters of an estate.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval language aygua also meant a river or stream: the Catalan Vides de sants translate Latin fluvium with it, Llull describes a plain “through which a fine water ran”, and Desclot tells of crossing “a great water” in 1283.^[2][5] The use survives in Pyrenean place names, such as l'Aigua de Valls at Gósol and l'Aigua d'Òra.^[2]

Medieval writers also used the word for body fluids (urine, tears, the humours of an eye disease), for the juice of fruits, and for the lustre of pearls and diamonds.^[5] Its derivatives are old: aigual is recorded in 976, from Latin aqualis, aiguader and aigüera “sink” in the 13th century, aiguat “downpour” in the 14th.^[7]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 still defines the word first as the liquid that falls from the clouds as rain and forms rivers, lakes and seas.^[14] The DIEC2 defines it chemically, as a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, H₂O.^[15]

Timeline

• 1169 – first record, in the cartulary of Poblet: las aiguas.^[2]
• 1204 – ayga in a rule of the Templars.^[2][6]
• 13th century, first half – ayga in the Usatges de Barcelona;^[4][3] aygua in the 1240s.^[4][3]
• 1283 – Desclot's chronicle uses aygua for a river.^[5]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge writes aiga in Lo somni.^[2]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc has eyes filling en aygua, with tears.^[5]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general heads the word aigua.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. water, the colourless liquid H₂O: Omple la gerra d'aigua freda.^[15][8][1]
2. (in the plural) A body of water; the waters of a sea, river or coast: les aigües del port.^[15][6]
3. rain: Ha caigut molta aigua aquesta nit.^[6][15]
4. (dialectal) A river or stream.^[6][2]
5. A watery liquid of the body, such as urine, sweat or tears.^[6][15]
6. (architecture) Each slope of a roof.^[6][15]
7. The lustre of a precious stone or pearl.^[15][5]

Word family

• aiguada
• aiguader
• aigual
• aiguat
• aigüera
• aigualir
• enaiguar

Related words

• aquàtic
• aqüeducte
• Latin aqua
• Occitan aiga
• Spanish agua

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 1, 90
3. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. aygua
4. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. ayga
5. ^ a b c d e f Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. aigua
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. aigua
7. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 50
8. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. aigua
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 570
10. ^ Raynouard, François-Just-Marie (1838–1844), Lexique roman, ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours, 6 vols., Paris: Silvestre, p. 6, 65
11. ^ Stempel, Wolf-Dieter et al., Dictionnaire de l'occitan médiéval (DOM), Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften, https://dom-en-ligne.de, p. s.v. aiga
12. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 79
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. aigua
15. ^ a b c d e f g Institut d'Estudis Catalans (2007), Diccionari de la llengua catalana, 2nd ed. (DIEC2), Barcelona: Edicions 62; online edition with later updates, https://dlc.iec.cat, p. s.v. aigua