arbre

Forms

arbre m (plural arbres)^[1] Abre is the commonest spoken form: the only one in Barcelona and most of Central Catalan and in the Balearics, and the usual one in Western Catalan and Valencian; it appears in writing in the 14th century.^[2] Arbre, general in literature, is hardly heard except in a zone of Osona.^[2] In the north Coromines recorded àlbra in the upper Empordà, àubra further west, and the reduced aura at Olot, Camprodon and Prats de Molló.^[2] A Barcelona inventory of 1465 writes arbe for a mast.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arbor (“tree”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]} The Latin noun was feminine;^[1] Catalan made it masculine.^[1][7]

The same Latin word is Occitan arbre, Spanish árbol, Portuguese árvore, Italian albero and Romanian arbore.^[7][1] In Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese, as in Latin, it also means a ship's mast.^[7]

De Vaan connects the Latin noun with arduus (“high”) and reconstructs *h₃rdʰ-ōs (“height, uprightness”), which would have come to mean "upright tree"; he notes that the other languages build the adjective "high" on a different stem, so the Latin noun would be a very old formation.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record in CICA is the Catalan version of the Usatges de Barcelona, from the first half of the 13th century.^[9] Coromines quotes Jaume I asking for timber, de ledó e d'uns arbres e d'altres, and the Catalan lives of the saints, which name herbs and trees as things that live.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a ship's mast is as old as the word: the Consolat de Mar lists masts, anchors and rudders as tackle, and Jaume I's chronicle tells of ships left a arbre sec, with bare masts.^[2][3] In the 15th century it also meant a family tree and a branching diagram of the parts of a science.^[3] Aguiló adds the stock of a crossbow.^[10]

Many plant names are formed with it; the DCVB lists species that keep arbre in their names.^[4] Bruguera dates arborar to 1254, desarborar to Muntaner and arbrer to 1413.^[5]

Timeline

• 1200–1249 – arbre in the Usatges de Barcelona.^[9]
• 1244–1274 – the mast of a ship in Jaume I's chronicle.^[3][2]
• 1254 – the derivative arborar.^[5]
• 1272 – Llull's Fèlix tells of a cock in a tree and a fox beneath it.^[3]
• 14th century – abre in Reixac's Catalan Questa del Sant Grasal.^[2]
• 1465 – arbe for a mast in an inventory of the Barcelona shipyards.^[3]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the tree as a perennial plant with a tall woody trunk.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A tree: a perennial plant with a tall woody trunk that branches above a certain height: Ens vam asseure sota un arbre gros.^[12][6][1]
2. (nautical) A mast of a ship.^[4][3]
3. A diagram that branches like a tree, such as a family tree.^[3][6]
4. (mechanics) A rotating shaft that transmits motion.^[6]

Word family

• arborar
• arborada
• desarborar
• enarborar
• arboreda
• arbrat
• arbreda
• arbrer
• arbrissó

Related words

• arbust
• arbori
• arborescent
• Latin arbor
• Occitan arbre
• Spanish árbol

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 360
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. arbre
4. ^ a b c Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. arbre
5. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 79
6. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. arbre
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 606
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. arbre
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. arbre
12. ^ 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. arbre