call

call¹ callus, corn

Etymology tree of call¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin callum

Catalan call

Italian callo

Spanish callo

From the same root · call¹

Latin calleō ← callum

Latin callōsus ← callum

Pronunciation

• Balearic, Central, Northern, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈkaʎ]^[4]

Forms

call m (uncountable)^[4] Old Catalan wrote cayl.^[1][5]

Etymology

The word for the callus is inherited from Latin callum (“hard skin, callus”).^{[1][2][6][7][4]}

The same Latin word is Spanish callo, Portuguese calo and Italian callo; French cal is a learned remaking of Old French ⟨chaul⟩.^[8][9][10]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic adjective meaning “hard” and compares Celtic forms for “hard”, but calls the Indo-European origin uncertain.^[11]

For the “palm of the hand” sense Coromines sees the joint influence of both Latin words, chiefly the first, since manual work hardens the palm.^[1] Bruguera prefers the word for the callus but does not rule out the one for the passage.^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sense “callus” is first found in the Roussillon Vides de sants of the late 13th century, where the apostle James prayed so long on his knees that he had cayls on them as on his feet.^[1]

Semantic evolution

Jacme March's rhyming dictionary of 1372 explains call as “a hardening of the flesh”, beside its other meanings.^[1] Jaume Roig's Spill (1460) has calls on hands and feet.^[5] The sense “palm of the hand” appears in the middle of the 15th century.^[1][6]

Fabra adds the callus that joins a broken bone and the tissue that forms over a wound in a plant, and the phrase posar call en una feina “to have done a job for a long time”.^[12][13] The DCVB records a technical sense, the iron wedge that tightens a tool's head on its handle.^[2][7]

Timeline

• Late 13th century – cayls on the knees in the Roussillon Vides de sants.^[1]
• 1372 – Jacme March's rhyming dictionary glosses it as a hardening of the flesh.^[1]
• 1460 – calls in Jaume Roig's Spill.^[5]
• Mid-15th century – call de la mà “palm of the hand”.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. callus, corn, a hardening of the skin: Tinc un call al dit gros del peu.^[13][7][4]
2. call de la mà: the palm of the hand.^[13][2]
3. (medicine) The bony callus that joins the ends of a broken bone.^[13][7]
4. (botany) Callus, tissue formed over a wound in a plant.^[13][7]
5. (technology) An iron wedge driven into the head of a tool's handle to tighten it.^[7][2]

Word family

• callista
• callós
• callositat
• encallir
• encalliment
• callicida

call² narrow passage, Jewish quarter

Etymology tree of call²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin callis

Aromanian cali

Catalan call

Italian calle

Romanian cale

Spanish calle

From the same root · call²

Romanian călător ← callis

Pronunciation

• Balearic, Central, Northern, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈkaʎ]^[4]

Forms

call m (plural calls)^[4] In the sense “Jewish quarter” the medieval texts write call, cal and cayl, and a Mallorcan document of 1488 has cahall.^[5][1]

Etymology

The word for the narrow passage is inherited from Latin callis (“path, track”).^[3][1][7][4]

The same Latin word is Spanish calle, Italian calle and Romanian cale.^[14][15] In Latin it named paths and tracks, especially cattle tracks; the Spanish sense “street” is already found in Isidore.^[15][1] De Vaan, against Walde–Hofmann, finds a connection with callum (“callus”) plausible.^[11]

The “Jewish quarter” has a separate source according to Coromines, Bruguera, the GDLC and Wiktionary: Biblical Hebrew קָהָל (qāhāl, “assembly, congregation”), which merged in form with the word for the passage.^[1][6][7][4] The DCVB keeps the sense under the Latin word for the path and, following Coromines's earlier dictionary, explains it as a contamination by the Hebrew word.^[3] Coromines answers that it is a different etymology rather than a contamination, but that the closeness of form and sense led speakers to give the Hebrew word the Catalan palatal ⟨ll⟩.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Medieval Latin documents have in calle publico from 1017, apparently for a passage narrower than a street, since the documents of Vic set it against vicus; a document of 1085 from Santa Linya has many examples latinised as quallo.^[1]

Semantic evolution

The Jewish quarter is called callis judaicus in Latin documents of 1082 and 1114, and in Catalan call jüic.^[1] A document of 1259 speaks of walling up la porta del cal of the castle of Montblanc; the Costums de Tortosa (1272) have Cal juich.^[1][5] The large calls of Barcelona, Valencia, Perpignan and Mallorca were whole districts, not passages.^[1]

Fabra (1932) gives the narrow passage and the river gorge, the phrase obrir-se call “to force a way through”, and the Jewish quarter as an old sense.^[12]

Timeline

• 1017 – in calle publico in a Medieval Latin document.^[1]
• 1082 – callis judaicus for the Jewish quarter.^[1]
• 1259 – la porta del cal at Montblanc.^[1][6]
• 1272 – Cal juich in the Costums de Tortosa.^[5]
• 1391 – the Call juych of Valencia sacked in the riots.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A narrow, sunken passage between two rocks or two walls.^[13][7][4]
2. A place where a river runs through a narrow channel.^[13][7]
3. A narrow way between two rows of people or things.^[3] obrir-se call: to make one's way through.^[3][12]
4. (history) The Jewish quarter of a medieval Catalan town.^[7][16][4]