cobrir

Forms

cobrir (first-person singular present cobreixo, first-person singular preterite cobrí, past participle cobert)^[1] The old present was not inchoative: Jaume Roig rhymes cobre with descobre, where the modern language has cobreix.^[2] Old Catalan also wrote cubrir, from Arnau de Vilanova's regimen of health for Jaume II (1305–1310) onwards.^[3] The participle is written cobert, but Coromines notes that the living pronunciation has always been cubert, with /u/.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”), a compound of operiō (“to shut, cover”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]}

The same Latin verb is Occitan cobrir, Spanish cubrir, French couvrir, Italian coprire, Portuguese cobrir and Romanian acoperi.^[7][1]

The simple verb goes back to *opweriō, from *h₂wer- (“to cover, shut”).^[1][8] The Oxford Latin Dictionary compares it with aperiō (“to open”).^[9]

Coromines explains the /u/ of the spoken participle ⟨cubert⟩ as spread from the infinitive and the other forms where /i/ followed, which were pronounced with /u/ in nearly every dialect; when /o/ was later restored before /i/, on the model of the old present ⟨cobre⟩, the participle was not affected.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines gives the first record from Jaume I's Llibre dels fets, where a cloth is to cover a lantern on the side facing the mountain.^[2] The participle appears earlier in Latin documents, as cuberta in 944.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Already in the medieval texts the verb meant to cover something to hide or protect it, to cover in large amounts, to bind a book in boards, to bury the dead, and, of animals, for the male to cover the female.^[10] Llull uses it for covering the body with a cloth, also figuratively.^[11] The figurative sense of concealing or excusing a fault is in the Curial e Güelfa and in Ausiàs March.^[10][12]

Escrig's Valencian dictionary of 1851 lists roofing a building and covering sweets with sugar.^[13] Pal·las adds protecting a place from attack and earthing up vegetables so that they whiten.^[14] In the dialects Coromines heard it of roofing houses with stone slabs in Capcir and of a reservoir that had covered a village near Oliana.^[2]

Its old derivatives are dated by Bruguera: cobertor in 1181, cobrellit in 1388, descobrir in Llull, encobrir in the 15th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 944 – cuberta in a Latin document.^[2]
• 1181 – the derivative cobertor.^[5]
• 13th century – cobrir in Jaume I's Llibre dels fets.^[2]
• 1250–1299 – first period of the verb in CICA.^[15]
• 1305–1310 – cubrir in Arnau de Vilanova.^[3]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge writes of the sea rising until it covered the rock.^[10]
• 1440 – cobrir in the sense of hiding, in the Curial e Güelfa.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the verb as protecting something with a thing laid over it.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cover something with something laid over it, to protect or hide it: Cobreix el pa amb un drap.^[17][6]
2. (transitive) Of a thing, to lie over something and cover it.^[17]
3. (transitive) To roof a building.^[17][1]
4. (transitive) Of a male animal, to mate with the female.^[17][1]
5. (transitive) To spread a layer of something over a surface.^[17]
6. (transitive) To conceal or excuse a fault.^[1][10]
7. (pronominal) To put one's hat on.^[17]
8. (pronominal) Of the sky, to become overcast.^[1]

Word family

• cobert
• coberta
• cobertor
• cobertura
• encobertar
• entrecoberta
• sobrecoberta
• descobrir
• encobrir
• recobrir
• cobrellit
• cobretaula

Related words

• cobricel
• Latin cooperiō
• Occitan cobrir
• Spanish cubrir

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 787
3. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. cubrir
4. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. cobrir
5. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 220
6. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. cobrir
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2205
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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. cobrir
11. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. cobrir
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. ^ Escrig, José (1851), Diccionario valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. cobrir
14. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. cobrir
15. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. cobrir
16. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. cobrir
17. ^ a b c d e f 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. cobrir