bou

bou¹ ox

Etymology tree of bou¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin bōs

Catalan bou

French bœuf

Italian bue

From the same root · bou¹

Latin boārius ← bōs

Latin bovīnus ← bōs

Latin bubulcus ← bōs

Latin būbulus ← bōs

Latin būcētum ← bōs

Latin būcina ← bōs

Latin būculus ← bōs

Spanish boyero ← bōs

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈbo̞w]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈbɔw]^[1]

Forms

bou m (plural bous)^[1] Coromines finds the form bou, with open /ɔ/, everywhere up to the edges of the language area, and in Aragon still at Benasque and Graus.^[2]

Etymology

The word for the ox is inherited from Latin bōs (“bovine animal, ox, bull, cow”), through the stem ⟨bov-⟩ of its other cases: Vulgar Latin soon gave up the nominative ⟨bos⟩ and used ⟨bovis⟩ even as a nominative.^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan buòu, French bœuf, Spanish buey, Portuguese boi, Italian bue and Romanian bou.^[6][1][7]

The Latin word is irregular: the expected Latin outcome of *gʷṓws would have begun with /w/, and the form with /b/ is most likely a borrowing from an Osco-Umbrian language, where Umbrian has the same /b/.^[1][8] Its cognates include Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs) and the English word cow.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds the word in documents of the 11th and 12th centuries; a complaint from the Segarra of the 12th century records that someone tolgren a'N R. Mir dos bous “took two oxen from R. Mir”.^[2][9] In Llull the ox is the animal for ploughing: lo bou a arar.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the north of the language area the word means strictly the castrated male, from three years old.^[2] In the south it is also used of the bull, and in Valencia and Mallorca it colloquially takes the place of toro: a plaça de bous is a bullring, and at Borriana fer bous means to fight bulls.^[2] Eiximenis called inquisitors who never punished anyone inquisidors de bou.^[2] The meat of the animal is carn de bou in the Tirant lo Blanc.^[11]

The name passed to other things: a sea slug, a large snail and the long pole of a mill in the DCVB, and pine cones without seeds in the Vall de Cardós.^[3][2] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 records the set phrases anar a pas de bou “to go very slowly”, no veure un bou a tres passes “to be very short-sighted”, passar bou per bèstia grossa and perdre el bou i les esquelles “to lose everything”.^[12]

Derivatives: bover “ox-herd” in the 13th century, boví in 1288, bovina “cow dung” in 1466 with its variant buina.^[4]

Timeline

• 11th century – first records, in documents.^[2][13]
• 12th century – a complaint from the Segarra about dos bous taken by force.^[9]
• 13th century – Ramon Llull: lo bou a arar.^[10]
• 1460 – carn de bou in the Tirant lo Blanc.^[11]
• 1839 – Labèrnia defines the word as a castrated, tamed bull used for ploughing and pulling carts.^[14]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary describes the animal and its set phrases.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large domestic ruminant of the bovid family, Bos taurus; an ox, a bull.^[15][5][1]
2. An adult castrated male of this species, an ox: El pagès junyia els dos bous cada matí.^[15][5]
3. beef, the meat of the animal: Hem comprat un tros de bou per a l'olla.^[5][16]
4. (in the plural) A popular festival in which bulls are let loose in the streets; a bullfight.^[5][2]
5. The edible crab, Cancer pagurus.^[1]

Word family

• bouada
• boual
• boval
• bovalar
• bover
• bovina
• buina

bou² seine fishing

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈbo̞w]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈbɔw]^[1]

Forms

bou m (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the seine fishing is borrowed from Occitan bou, the Provençal form of Languedocian bol, with the same meaning.^[5][17][18] This Occitan word is from Latin bolus (“a throw of the net; a catch”), from Ancient Greek βόλος (bólos, “a throw; a cast of the net; a catch”), from βάλλω (bállō, “to throw”).^[18][19][1]

Coromines explains that Catalan itself kept the inherited bol “a cast of the net, the catch”, first recorded in Jaume Roig's Spill in 1460, while the large net was named in the 19th century with the Provençal form.^[18] He suggests that the Provençal form spread because the coast of Provence mattered far more to fishing than the marshy coast of Languedoc.^[18] Meyer-Lübke also derives the Catalan word from Provençal and sees the likeness to the word for the ox, together with the two boats the fishing needs, behind the pair of boats being called ⟨parella de bous⟩.^[19] The name was calqued with the words for the ox, French bœuf and Spanish buey.^[18][19]

The DCVB derives the word directly from Latin ⟨bolus⟩, influenced by the word for the ox; it points to the name banyes “horns” for a part of the gear and to vaca “cow” for a similar net drawn by a single boat.^[3] Bruguera lists the word in his article on ⟨bol⟩.^[20] Wiktionary gives the Greek word as the source.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 records the word as the name of the fishing boats that work the net, also called a parella “pair” because two of them pull it together.^[14] Coromines dates the net's name to the 19th century.^[18]

Semantic evolution

Amengual's Mallorcan dictionary of 1858 describes the bou as a large boat for fishing on the high sea.^[21] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 defines it as a kind of deep-sea fishing in which two boats sailing side by side drag the net between them, and also as the net itself; it records pescar al bou, anar al bou and peix del bou “fish caught at the bou”.^[12] On the model of this word a smaller net worked by a single boat was named vaca “cow”.^[18] The DIEC2 now defines it as a funnel-shaped bottom trawl with two wings, held open by two boards.^[15]

Timeline

• 1839 – Labèrnia records the bou as the pair of fishing boats and their net.^[14]
• 1858 – Amengual's dictionary: a large boat for fishing on the high sea.^[21]
• 1927 – Pal·las: fishing in which two boats pull the net between them.^[22]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary: pescar al bou, anar al bou.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A trawl net shaped like a funnel, with two wings, dragged along the sea bottom: Les barques surten al bou abans de l'alba.^[15][5][1]
2. trawling with this net, originally by two boats together (pescar al bou).^[3][12]
3. A fishing boat that drags this net, also barca del bou.^[5][17]