bell

Forms

bell (feminine bella, masculine plural bells, feminine plural belles)^[1] The DCVB gives /béʎ/ for the whole language area;^[1] Wiktionary gives a slightly lower /e/ for Northern Catalan.^[2][1] In Roussillon the forms bel, bela, closer to Occitan and French, were favoured to avoid the clash with vell.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bellus (“pretty, fine”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]} The same Latin word is Italian bello, French beau and Occitan bèl.^[6][1] The REW takes Spanish bello and Portuguese belo to be borrowings from Italian.^[6]

Wiktionary derives the Latin adjective from an older Latin *duenelos, a diminutive of duenos (“good”), the older form of bonus.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds the word from the 13th century, in Jaume I, Llull and the Vides de sants rosselloneses; in the medieval and literary language it is the word for “beautiful”, with almost no rival.^[3] The earliest texts in CICA are Llull's Llibre de l'orde de cavalleria and Llibre de Sancta Maria.^[7]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages bell was much used before a noun as a courteous formula to win the goodwill of the person addressed, in the Vides, in Cerverí and throughout Llull: bels amichs “fair friends”, and with frare, pare, sor.^[3] Fifteenth-century texts also use it for “clean”, in fer bell “to clean” and en bell “in a fair copy”, and for “great, considerable”.^[8]

Later its homophony with vell “old” made it lose ground in its basic sense to bonic, formós, maco and guapo.^[3] Mallorca kept it longer in phrases such as bell home and bella dona, and és una bella persona is general for a very respectable and kind person.^[3] It also became a mere intensifier, as in bella estona “a good while”, and the Belles Arts and Belles Lletres came from France.^[3] The derivatives bellesa (13th century) and embellir (Llull) are medieval.^[4] Wiktionary labels the adjective literary or dialectal.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – Jaume I, Llull and the Vides de sants rosselloneses;^[3][4] bellesa is recorded in the same century.^[3][4]
• 1275–1299 – Llull's Llibre de l'orde de cavalleria.^[7]
• 1290 – Llull's Llibre de Sancta Maria.^[7]
• 1381 – Eiximenis uses bell as an intensifier: bell no res “nothing at all”.^[8]
• 1839 – the compound belladona, from Italian.^[4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (literary or dialectal) beautiful, fair: pleasing to the senses or the mind: Des del cim es veu un paisatge molt bell.^[5][9][1]
2. Very good.^[5]
3. Large, considerable, intense: Ens vam endur un bell ensurt.^[5][2]
4. In adverbial phrases, exactly, right: Era al bell mig de la sala.^[5][2]

Word family

• abellir
• abellidor
• bellament
• bellesa
• bellor
• embellir
• embelliment

Related words

• Latin bellus
• French beau
• Italian bello

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 Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. bell
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 751
4. ^ a b c d e Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 114
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. bell
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1027
7. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. bell
8. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. bell
9. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. bell