celler

Forms

celler m^[1] Old Catalan wrote celer, seller and çeller besides celler.^[2][3] The DCVB records pronunciations without the final consonant, [səʎé], [seʎé] and [seʎέ], and one with it, [seʎéɾ].^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cellārium (“storeroom, larder”),^[2][4][5] formed from cella (“storeroom, chamber”) with the suffix of place -ārium.^[1]

The same Latin word is French cellier, Old Occitan celier, Spanish cillero, Portuguese celeiro and Old Italian cellaio, and it was borrowed as German Keller.^[6][2]

De Vaan traces the Latin noun to Proto-Italic *kēlā- and asks whether it is related to cēlō (“to hide”), through a long vowel later shortened before a doubled consonant, or a diminutive; a link with *ḱel- (“to cover”) is proposed but uncertain.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds the word in Romance form in two Latin documents of the middle of the 11th century, both before 1075, summarised by Miret i Sans: the bishop's and the lord's bailiffs are to go together per ipsos celers of Sanaüga and gauge the casks, and a property is held cum medietate de ipso celer, “with half of the cellar”.^[2] Here it already means a room, underground or deep, where wine is kept.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Not every medieval record refers to wine.^[2] Latin documents of the 9th to 12th centuries, among them a Pallars one of 807 and a Girona one of 1188, use the word for a storehouse or granary built apart from the main house, the older sense of a larder.^[2] Asturian keeps that sense, and in the Vall Ferrera and at Farrera de Pallars a celler was still the place where food is kept fresh in 1933.^[2] Place names keep it too: the village of Cellers in the Conca de Tremp is Celers in documents of 1045 and 1053, and in the Ribagorçan uplands, where no wine is made, two farmsteads are called Lo Celler.^[2]

Llull uses the word figuratively in his Oracions: seller de vi d amor, a cellar of the wine of love that makes sinners drunk.^[3] Vicent Ferrer names it among the rooms of a house, and Jaume Roig lists it with the tower, cistern, press and vats of a new building.^[3] Labèrnia gives the sense “tavern” as old.^[8] The DIEC2 has three senses: the place where wine is made and kept, a room of a house for wine and food, and a shop selling wine.^[9] In Mallorca the word also names a restaurant serving traditional food.^[1] The monk in charge of a monastery's provisions was the cellerer, recorded in a half-Catalan Latin form in a Pallars document of 957.^[2]

Timeline

• 807 – a Latin document from Pallars uses the Latin word for a storehouse apart from the house.^[2]
• 1045 – the place name Celers in the county of Pallars.^[2]
• 1050–1075 – celers and celer in two Latin documents, for a room where wine is kept.^[2]
• 1272 – Llull writes seller in his Oracions.^[3]
• 1290 – celler in Llull's Llibre de Sancta Maria.^[10]
• 1306 – celer in a document from Roussillon.^[2][5]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig writes çeller in the Spill.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary defines it as the place for keeping wine.^[8]
• 1932 – Fabra defines it as the place where wine is made and kept.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place where wine is made and kept: winery, wine cellar: Al Priorat hi ha molts cellers petits.^[9][5]
2. A room of a house, usually underground, where wine and food are stored: cellar.^[9][4]
3. A shop that sells wine and other drinks.^[9][5]
4. (Mallorca) A restaurant, especially one serving traditional Mallorcan food.^[1]

Word family

• cellerer
• cellerat

Related words

• cel·la
• Latin cellārium
• French cellier
• Spanish cillero

Usage notes

Coromines treats bodega as a Castilianism best avoided, though it has been used, above all for a tavern selling particular wines.^[12] Torra's dictionary of 1670 already glossed bodega o celler.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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, 660
3. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. celler
4. ^ a b c Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. celler
5. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. celler
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1804
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. celler
9. ^ a b c d 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. celler
10. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. celler
11. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. celler
12. ^ a b 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, 24