anell

Forms

anell m (plural anells)^[1] Medieval texts also write anel and annell.^[2][3] The final consonant is /ʎ/ in most dialects, and /l/ in some.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ānellus (“little ring”).^{[5][4][6][7][1]} DECat, Bruguera and the GDLC take the Latin word as a diminutive of ānulus (“ring”);^[5][6] Wiktionary and the OLD derive it directly from ānus (“ring”) with the suffix -ellus.^{[5][6][7][1][8]}

The same Latin word is Occitan anèl, French anneau, Italian anello, Spanish anillo and Romanian inel.^[9][1] In Portuguese it gave elo “link of a chain”.^[9][10] The REW takes anel “ring” from Old Occitan.^[9] The troubadours wrote Old Occitan anel.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds the first records in the 13th century, in Jaume I and Llull: Jaume I's chronicle describes a pole with anels on either side to hold the ropes, and Llull's Llibre de meravelles says that a diamond in a needle is worth more than a sapphire in a gold ring, en l'anell d'aur.^[5] Llull also writes of hands adorned with rings of gold and silver.^[12] The word meant both a ring for fastening and a finger ring.^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts name the bishop's ring, the captain's ring that Tirant takes off his finger, a ring that made its wearer invisible, the iron ring knocker of the main door at Lluc (1428) and iron rings for emptying lamps (València, 1459); the Llibre de Gamaliel uses anell for a spell.^[3][2] The ring also served as a seal or signature.^[4]

Unlike its sister languages, Catalan made much use of the feminine anella, recorded in 1379, for the ring of a door, a scythe or a plough;^[5] Coromines explains it by the Catalan feminines with augmentative value and by the influence of a near-synonym.^[5] Labèrnia (1839) adds the ring moulding at the top of a column, and Fabra (1932) the segment of an annelid and the bored cork.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 13th century – anels on a pole in the chronicle of Jaume I.^[5]
• 1288–1289 – l'anell d'aur in Llull's Llibre de meravelles.^[5][15]
• 1379 – first record of the feminine anella.^[5][6]
• 1395 – Antoni Canals tells of a poisoned stone hidden in a ring, in Scipió e Aníbal.^[3]
• 1428 – hun anell de ferro on the main door of the church of Lluc.^[3]
• 1460 – Tirant gives up l'anell de la Capitania.^[3][5]
• 1932 – Fabra records the anell de pescador, the seal of the Roman chancery.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ring, a circular piece of metal or other hard material fitted round an object.^[16][7][1]
2. A finger ring of gold, silver or the like, plain or set with stones: Li va regalar un anell de plata.^[16][7][1]
3. anell del Pescador the Fisherman's Ring, the seal ring the Pope uses to authenticate some letters.^[16]
4. A cork stopper bored lengthwise.^[16][7]
5. (zoology) Each segment of the body of an annelid.^[16]
6. (botany) A ring-shaped organ or part.^[16]
7. (algebra) A ring, a set with two operations.^[7]

Word family

• anella
• anellar
• anellat
• anellet
• aneller

Related words

• anular
• Latin ānellus
• Occitan anèl
• Spanish anillo
• French anneau

Usage notes

The DCVB heads two local homographs: anell “nostril”, an altered form of aranell, and anell “lamb”, a form of anyell.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Aguiló i Fuster, Marià (1914–1934), Diccionari Aguiló: materials lexicogràfics, ed. Pompeu Fabra and Manuel de Montoliu, 8 vols., Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. 1, s.v. anell
3. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. anell
4. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. anell
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 312
6. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 70
7. ^ a b c d e f Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. anell
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 452
10. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 274
11. ^ Raynouard, François-Just-Marie (1838–1844), Lexique roman, ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours, 6 vols., Paris: Silvestre, p. 2, 83
12. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. anell
13. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. anell
14. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. anell
15. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. anell
16. ^ a b c d e f 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. anell