carregar

Forms

carregar (first-person singular present carrego, first-person singular preterite carreguí, past participle carregat); root stress: (Northern) /e̞/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /e/^[1] The old texts often write cargar, without the pretonic /e/: the Furs de València have it, as do Desclot and the Catalan lives of the saints.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin carricō (“to load a cart”), formed on Latin carrus (“wagon”).^[3][4][5][1] The Late Latin verb is first attested in the Lex Salica;^[1][6] Corominas finds it in the Visigothic laws and other texts of the Visigothic and Merovingian period.^[1][6] The DCVB glosses its first meanings as carrying with a cart and putting on a cart.^[4]

The same verb is Occitan cargar, Spanish cargar, Portuguese carregar, French charger and Italian caricare.^[7][1] Bruguera treats it under carro, the Catalan noun from the same Latin word.^[8]

The Latin noun was borrowed from Gaulish *karros, from Proto-Celtic *karros (“wagon”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's first records are cargar in the Furs de València (1261–1271) and carregar in the Catalan Diàlegs of Saint Gregory, of the second half of the 13th century.^[2][9] Llull, in the Llibre de contemplació, says one can load a ship and fill it with whatever one likes, and load a donkey likewise.^[10]

Semantic evolution

Coromines lists the medieval figurative senses: imposing an obligation, in the Costums de Tortosa; taking a fault upon oneself, in Ausiàs March; and pestering someone, in the Curial.^[3][11] Sailors used it for clewing up or crowding on sail.^[11] In the 16th century Pou records carregar censal, to charge an annuity on a house.^[3]

Set phrases are recorded from the 19th century: carregar els neulers, to make someone bear the worst part of a job, and carregar de tort, to get drunk, in the Empordà.^[12][13] The modern dictionaries add loading a gun, charging a battery and loading files into a computer's memory.^[14][1] In the language of the castells it means completing the human tower.^[1]

The nouns càrrega, old carga, and càrrec were formed on the verb;^[3] carga is recorded in 1249 in the Lleuda de Cotlliure.^[3]

Timeline

• 1249 – the noun carga in the Lleuda de Cotlliure.^[3]
• 1261–1271 – cargar in the Furs de València.^[2]
• 1250–1299 – carregar in the Catalan Diàlegs of Saint Gregory.^[9]
• 13th century – Llull's Llibre de contemplació speaks of loading a ship.^[10]
• 1440 – the Curial e Güelfa uses it for laying blame on someone.^[11]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc has a ship crowding on all the sail it can carry.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra records carregar els neulers a algú.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To load: to put something to be carried onto a person, animal or vehicle: Carregarem les caixes a la furgoneta.^[14][5][1]
2. (transitive) To lay blame or a burden on someone;^[1] carregar el mort a algú, to make someone take the blame.^[14]
3. (transitive) To take a weight upon oneself; to hold a load.^[14][5]
4. (transitive) To supply a device with what it consumes; to load a gun or charge a battery.^[14][1]
5. (transitive, computing) To load files into a computer's memory.^[14]
6. (transitive, nautical) To take in a sail.^[14]

Word family

• càrrec
• càrrega
• carregada
• carregador
• descarregar
• recarregar

Related words

• carro
• Latin carrus
• Occitan cargar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. cargar
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 593
4. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. carregar
5. ^ a b c Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. carregar
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 868
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1719
8. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 186
9. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. carregar
10. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. carregar
11. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. carregar
12. ^ Aguiló i Fuster, Marià (1914–1934), Diccionari Aguiló: materials lexicogràfics, ed. Pompeu Fabra and Manuel de Montoliu, 8 vols., Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. 3
13. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. carregar
14. ^ a b c d e f g 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. carregar