barba

Forms

barba f (plural barbes)^[1] The final vowel is /ə/ in Central and Balearic Catalan and /a/ in North-Western Catalan and Valencian; the DCVB also records the pronunciation bàlba.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin barba (“beard”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan barba, Spanish barba, Portuguese barba, Italian barba and French barbe.^[6]

The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *farðā and Proto-Indo-European *bʰardʰeh₂ (“beard”).^[1] Its cognates include bart and beard.^[7] De Vaan notes that the Proto-Italic form should have given Latin ⟨farba⟩; the initial /b/ is usually explained by assimilation to the /b/ inside the word.^[7][1]

The sense “chin” is shared with Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Languedocien and many Italian dialects, which leads Coromines to think it comes from Vulgar Latin.^[3] A calque of Greek, where one word also meant both beard and chin, has been proposed, but he does not consider this established.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's first record is in the Catalan Usatges de Barcelona, from the first half of the 13th century.^[8] Coromines dates the word to the beginnings of the language, with the writers of the 13th century such as Llull.^[3] In Llull's Llibre de contemplació the barber wets a man's beard so that it will shave better.^[9] The first sense is the hair of the face.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts also use barba for the beard of animals (Eiximenis, 1381: a goat led by the beard), for the fine roots of bulbs such as the leek (Micer Johan, 1466), and for a growth under a horse's tongue (Manuel Dieç, 1424); en barba de meant “to someone's face”.^[10] The sense “chin” is surely old, but Coromines has no record of it before Torra's dictionary of 1640.^[3]

Labèrnia (1839) records the actor who plays old men's parts, which the DIEC2 heads as an obsolete masculine noun.^[11][12] Catalan says per barba “per head”, even of women.^[6][12] Bruguera dates barber to 1309, barbada to 1385 and desbarbar to the 15th century, and lists many compound adjectives such as barbamec (1803).^[4]

Timeline

• 1200–1249 – barba in the Catalan Usatges de Barcelona.^[8]
• 1309 – first record of the derivative barber.^[4]
• 1381 – Eiximenis compares the sinner to a goat led per la barba.^[10]
• 1424 – barba for a growth in a horse's mouth, in Manuel Dieç's book on horses.^[10]
• 1640 – first record of the sense “chin”, in Torra's dictionary.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia gives “chin” first and records the actor of old men's parts.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. beard, the hair that grows on the lower part of a man's face: S'ha deixat créixer la barba aquest estiu.^[12][5][1]
2. The chin.^[5][2][1]
3. The hair or appendages of certain animals comparable to a beard, such as a goat's.^[12][2]
4. (in the plural) The fine roots of a plant.^[5][10]
5. (masculine, obsolete, theatre) An actor who plays old men's parts.^[12][5]

Word family

• barbada
• barballera
• barbat
• barber
• barbeta
• barbut
• desbarbar
• sotabarba
• barbablanc
• barbamec

Related words

• Latin barba

Usage notes

Set phrases include a les barbes de “right in front of”, barba a barba “face to face” and fer la barba “to shave”.^[12] The DCVB heads Barba separately as a surname, from a Latin cognomen or from this word.^[2]

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 Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. barba
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 631
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 106
5. ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. barba
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 944
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. barba
9. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. barba
10. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. barba
11. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. barba
12. ^ 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. barba