car

car¹ dear, expensive

Etymology tree of car¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin cārus

Catalan car

French cher

Italian caro

Spanish caro

From the same root · car¹

Italian carino ← cārus

Latin care ← cārus

Latin cāritās ← cārus

Latin percārus ← cārus

Pronunciation

• Central, Northern, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈkar]^[1]
• [ˈka], [ˈkar]^[1]

Forms

car (feminine cara, masculine plural cars, feminine plural cares)^[1] The DCVB records the pronunciations [káɾ] and [ká].^[2] In the countryside between Vic, Figueres and Girona the adjective is pronounced [kér].^[3] Coromines heard it at Querós in 1925 and at Boadella d'Empordà in 1939, and Aguiló's dictionary records quer at Batet, Olot, Besalú, Ribes, la Bisbal and Begur.^[3][4]

Etymology

The word for “dear, expensive” is inherited from Latin cārus (“dear, precious, esteemed”).^{[3][2][5][6][1]} The same Latin word is Occitan car, Spanish caro, Portuguese caro, Italian caro and French cher.^[1][7][8]

The Latin adjective goes back to *kāros and *kéh₂ros (“desired, desirable”), from the root *keh₂- (“to desire, wish”).^[9][1] De Vaan lists Venetic and Faliscan cognates, and Wiktionary compares Sanskrit चारु (cā́ru, “dear, beloved”).^[9][1]

Coromines explains the Girona form ⟨quer⟩ from the poets of the 13th and 14th centuries, who changed stressed /a/ into /e/ to make a rhyme; the Set savis already rhymes ⟨quer⟩ in the 13th century.^[3] He thinks the habit lived on in the popular ballads of the Girona Pyrenees and passed from there into the speech of the countryside, since the adjective in the sense “beloved” always had a somewhat literary tone.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines, Bruguera and the GDLC take the adjective back to the Homilies, which Bruguera and the GDLC date to the 12th century.^[3][5][6] The passage plays on the word: charity is so called qar Déus és pus car que nula res, “because God is dearer than anything”.^[3] Here the sense is “held in affection, dear”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Llull already used both senses of the adjective, “beloved” (dolç e car, of the child Jesus) and “of great value”, said of dishes dearer than beef.^[10] The adverbial use “at a high price” is recorded in 1298, in a moral maxim on advice that cost the giver dear (li costa car).^[11] Medieval set phrases were haver car “to love, hold dear”, haver a car “to prefer” and comprar car “to pay dearly for something”.^[11]

Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà list the senses “costly” and “esteemed” and the adverb “at a high price”, and Labèrnia gives the same.^[12][13] The DEIEC now labels the sense “dear, beloved” formal, while “expensive” is the everyday sense.^[14] Among the derivatives, carestia “scarcity, dearth” is recorded from the second half of the 13th century;^[3][5] Coromines does not take it for a true derivative of car, though the Romance languages soon linked the two.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 12th century – first record, in the Homilies.^[5][6][3]
• 13th century – the Set savis rhymes the form quer.^[3]
• 1298 – adverbial costa car “costs dear”, in Jafuda Bonsenyor's Sentències morals.^[11]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge writes si mi avets car “if you love me” in his Valter e Griselda.^[11]
• 1803 – Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà list the adjective and the adverb.^[12]
• 1925–1939 – Coromines records [kér] in villages of the Girona diocese.^[3]

Meanings

Adjective

1. expensive, costly: having a high price: Aquest abric és massa car per a mi.^[6][14][1]
2. Of a shop or a place: that charges high prices.^[6][14]
3. (formal, poetic) dear, beloved: held in great affection.^{[6][14][2][1]}
4. (dated) precious, of great value.^[2][10]

Adverb

1. At a high price: Ens van vendre les entrades molt car.^[15][6]

Word family

• carament
• caror
• encarir
• desencarir

car² because, for

Etymology tree of car²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin quī

French qui

Italian chi

Latin quārē

Catalan car

French car

From the same root · car²

Latin aliōquī ← quī

Latin aliquī ← quī

Latin atquī ← quī

Latin quā ← quī

Latin quīcumque ← quī

Latin quīdam ← quī

Latin quīlibet ← quī

Latin quīn ← quī

Latin quīnam ← quī

Latin quīvīs ← quī

Latin quō ← quī

Latin quōmodo ← quī

Italian chissà ← chi

Italian chiunque ← chi

Pronunciation

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

Forms

car (invariable)^[1] Old Catalan also wrote quar and qar.^[3][4] It had a variant cor, used in the Usatges, by Cerverí de Girona and by Llull, which is unknown in Occitan and French.^[16]

Etymology

The word for “because, for” is inherited from Latin quārē (“why; for which reason”).^{[16][17][5][6][1]} In Latin it was the ablative of the pronoun quā and of rēs (“thing”), literally “by which thing”, and in the classical language it meant “why?” and “for which reason, therefore”.^[16][1] Vulgar Latin turned it into a causal conjunction: a Pompeian inscription of the 1st century has it in this sense, and the Peregrinatio Aetheriae uses it in place of nam (“for”).^[16] The DCVB adds that hints of the causal use are found in Cicero, Sallust and Horace.^[17]

The same conjunction is French car and Occitan car, with the older form Old French quer.^[18][1] It reached Old Aragonese, where the Fueros de Aragón of the late 13th century write ⟨quar⟩, but Coromines is not sure this was not taken from Catalan;^[16] Castilian kept the classical quia instead.^[16]

According to Coromines the variant ⟨cor⟩ shows a second regular outcome of the /wa/ of the Latin word in an unstressed position.^[16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bruguera and the GDLC date the first record to the 12th century, in the Homilies;^[5][6][16] Coromines lists the Homilies, the Usatges, the Roussillon Vides de sants, Jaume I and Llull as the first texts, of the 13th century.^[5][6][16] The Homilies explain that charity is so called qar Déus és pus car que nula res, “because God is dearer than anything”.^[3] In the oldest texts the conjunction introduces a short reason, in the Latin manner.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The conjunction could stand before the main clause as well as after it: Jaume I writes car açò era forma de dret “since this was the form of law” before the clause it explains.^[16] It also combined with other particles in per ço car, per tal car and en ço car.^[17] The use that lasted longest in the literary language is the one that opens a long reason after a strong pause, as in Eiximenis.^[16] Faraudo's examples include Eiximenis (1381) and the Tirant lo Blanc (1460).^[11]

Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà already mark it as old, and so does Labèrnia.^[12][13] Fabra labels it archaic, and the DEIEC places it in the formal register.^[19][14]

Timeline

• 12th century – first record, in the Homilies.^[5][6]
• 13th century – common in the Usatges, the Vides de sants, Jaume I and Llull, with the variant cor.^[16]
• 1321 – a Roussillon document writes quart.^[16]
• 1381 – Eiximenis uses it in the Cercapou.^[11]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc uses it.^[11]
• 1803 – Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà list it as old.^[12]
• 1932 – Fabra labels it archaic.^[19]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. (formal, archaic) because, for: introduces a clause that gives the reason for what was said before: Vam tornar aviat, car el camí era perillós de nit.^{[15][6][14][1]}
2. (Old Catalan) since, as: placed in the first of two clauses.^[17][16]