cercle

Forms

cercle m (plural cercles)^[1] Old Catalan also wrote sercle, and two Roussillon documents of 1308 and 1309 have selcle, with the /r/ assimilated to the following /l/.^[2][3] In the sense of a barrel hoop the word lives on in the north of Catalonia, from the Montseny to the Pyrenees, mostly pronounced with a palatal first consonant, as xescle; the Pallars has séggle.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan cercle, which is inherited from Latin circulus (“circle; hoop”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} The Latin word is a diminutive of circus (“circle”), formed with the suffix -ulus.^[3][7]

The same Latin word is Occitan cercle, French cercle and Italian cerchio.^[8][1] Catalan has a second outcome of it, cèrcol, with a somewhat more conservative pronunciation;^[3][5][1] Bruguera calls it semi-learned, and Wiktionary also names the obsolete círcol as a doublet.^[3][5][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in Ramon Llull, who used the word often in its geometrical sense; in the Cent noms de Déu God has shaped the world long, wide and deep, e en cercle qui es redon “and in a circle that is round”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The sense of a group of people gathered or bound together is already medieval: the palace ordinances of Peter the Ceremonious (about 1370) tell the councillors to rise and leave del cercle del conseyl “the circle of the council”, and Eiximenis writes of forming a circle round the altar.^[3][2] Medieval texts also use the word for a magic circle traced on the ground, for the circles of the sky in astronomy, and for any band of metal or other material put round a thing to hold it together.^[2]

The sense of a barrel or wheel hoop appears in a document of 1317, and inventories from Vic list hoops by the hundred in 1410.^[3][9] In most of the language area this sense passed to cèrcol, which replaced cercle in it everywhere except in the north of Catalonia.^[3]

Pal·las's dictionary records the phrase cercle viciós “vicious circle”, and Fabra's of 1932 the squaring of the circle as the image of an impossible task.^[10][11] The GDLC adds the sense of a club with premises where its members meet.^[6] Bruguera dates encerclar to the 15th century and semicercle to 1911.^[5]

Timeline

• 1272 – Llull uses cercle in the Cent noms de Déu.^[2]
• 1308–1309 – the form selcle in two Roussillon documents.^[3]
• 1317 – cercle “hoop of a barrel” in a document published by Alart.^[3]
• c. 1370 – lo cercle del conseyl in the palace ordinances of Peter the Ceremonious.^[3][2]
• 1381 – Eiximenis condemns divination per cercles in the Cercapou.^[2]
• 1400 – Vicent Ferrer compares heaven to a circle drawn with a compass.^[2]
• 1410 – cent cercles in an inventory from Vic.^[9]
• 1932 – Fabra defines cercle as the part of a plane bounded by a circumference.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (geometry) A circle, the part of a plane bounded by a circumferència.^[12][6]
2. A circumference; a circular line: L'àguila dibuixava cercles damunt la vall.^[12][4]
3. (astronomy, geography) The orbit of a heavenly body; one of the circles of the sphere, as in cercle polar “polar circle”.^[12]
4. A group of people or things arranged in a curve round a centre: Els nens seien en cercle al voltant del mestre.^[6][4]
5. (figurative) The people one keeps company with, or the field in which one moves: un cercle d'amics.^[6][4]
6. A club, an association with premises where its members meet.^[6]
7. (dialectal) Hoop of a barrel or wheel, cèrcol.^[4][3]

Word family

• cerclar
• encerclar
• desencerclar
• encerclament
• semicercle

Related words

• cèrcol
• circ
• circular
• Latin circulus
• Occitan cercle

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 Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. cercle
3. ^ 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, 676
4. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. cercle
5. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 202
6. ^ a b c d e f Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. cercle
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1947
9. ^ a b 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, s.v. cercle
10. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. cercle
11. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. cercle
12. ^ a b c 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. cercle