brollar

Forms

brollar (first-person singular present brollo, first-person singular preterite brollí, past participle brollat); root stress: (Northern) /u/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /o/^[1] The stressed forms had /u/ in Old Catalan, as expected from a short o before a palatal: Llull writes brulla, and the Curial brullàs;^[1] Antoni Canals at the end of the 14th century already has brolla.^[2] The pronunciation is [bɾuʎá] in Central and Northern Catalan, [bɾoʎá] in the Balearics and the North-West and [bɾoʎáɾ] in Valencia.^[3][1]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *broglāre, as is Old Occitan brolhar “to sprout”; both verbs are probably derived from the noun seen in bruelh (“thicket”) and Old Catalan ⟨brull⟩, from *brogilos (“enclosure of plants”).^[2][4][5][1] Coromines and Bruguera take that Gallo-Roman word to be Celtic; the DCVB, the NGGL and Wiktionary call it Germanic.^{[2][4][3][6][1]}

The first sense was that of plants coming out of the ground.^[2] Its use for water and other liquids arose mainly in Catalan, later and under the influence of borbollar, bombolla, bullir and the other words of bulliō (“to boil, bubble”).^[2][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds both brulla and brollar from the end of the 13th century.^[2] In Llull's Llibre de contemplació it is already said of liquids: God is the one from whom truth nex e brolla “springs and gushes” for us, and the clear sweet water ix e brulla from a spring.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

The plant sense survives in Bernat Metge's brulles “shoots”, and Jaume March's rhyming dictionary of 1371 still glosses brulla as “to grow”; but in the verb the liquid sense won, and the noun brollador “fountain, jet” is common in the Valencian writers of the 15th century.^[2] Canals in 1395 and the Tirant in 1460 use it of blood and tears.^[7]

Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 also gives “to swarm, move in a multitude” and “to abound”.^[8] The DCVB adds fish rising to the surface and partridges taking off steeply.^[3] Fabra gives water springing from the ground first, then plants coming up and, figuratively, things arising suddenly.^[9]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – brolla and brulla in Llull's Llibre de contemplació.^[6][2]
• 1371 – Jaume March's rhyming dictionary glosses brulla as “to grow”.^[2]
• 1395 – Antoni Canals has blood gushing from wounds.^[7][2]
• 1460 – Tirant lo Blanc: eyes brollen fountains of bitter tears.^[7]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary.^[8]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of water) To gush, spring from the ground with some force: Al peu de la roca brolla una font.^[10][5]
2. (of a liquid or gas) To spurt out of a container.^[10][5]
3. (of plants) To sprout, come up out of the ground.^[10][3][1]
4. (figurative) To arise or appear suddenly.^[10][5]
5. (dialectal) Of fish, to rise to the surface; of partridges, to fly up steeply.^[3]

Word family

• broll
• brolla
• brollador
• brull
• esbrollar

Related words

• Old Occitan brolhar

Usage notes

The DCVB heads two more words brollar: a verb “to cut the unproductive shoots of the vine”, derived from brolla, and a noun “patch of scrub, low woodland”.^[3] The DIEC2 heads the noun separately, as a synonym of brolla.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 2, 259
3. ^ a b c d e f Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. brollar
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 141
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. brollar
6. ^ a b c Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. brollar
7. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. brollar
8. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. brollar
9. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. brollar
10. ^ a b c d e 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. brollar