corda

Forms

corda f (plural cordes)^[1] The DCVB records the final vowel as [ə], [ɛ], [o], [a] and [ɔ] in the different dialects.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin chorda (“string of a musical instrument; rope”), which Latin had taken from Ancient Greek χορδή (khordḗ, “guts; string of gut”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]} In Greek the word meant guts and tripe, and then a string made of gut for a lyre or harp.^[1]

The same Latin word is Occitan còrda, Spanish cuerda, French corde, Italian corda, Portuguese corda and Romanian coardă.^[6][1] Corominas notes that it means "rope" in every Romance language, with only traces of the sense of guts.^[7]

The Greek noun is probably from *ǵʰerH- (“bowel”), but the formation is unclear.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest text in CICA is the Homilies d'Organyà, of the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century.^[8] Coromines dates the sense of a rope for tying to the 13th century, with documents from 1249 on, the Lleuda de Cotlliure among them, and quotes Llull's Blanquerna, where a man dressed as a fool leads a dog on a cord.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The musical sense, a string of an instrument, is recorded in the 14th century, in the Llibre d'Alcoatí and in Genebreda's translation of Boethius, which compares human vanities to strings of gut that sound in instruments.^[3] Medieval texts also used the word for a measure of length in land surveying, a measure of cloth, a bundle, the sinews of the heart, and a dress ornament.^[9]

In Valencia corda is also the crest of a range of hills, as in the Corda de la Murada near Monòver.^[3] From there it came to mean a line of underwater shoals, as off Dénia.^[3] Bruguera dates cordam to 1288 and cordatge to 1393;^[4][3] cordar is of the 13th century.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1175–1224 – first record in CICA, in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[8]
• 1249 – corda in the Lleuda de Cotlliure.^[3]
• 1284 – a tariff of Perpignan uses corda as a measure of cloth, six canes of Montpellier.^[9]
• 1288 – the derivative cordam, rigging.^[3][4]
• 14th century – the string of a musical instrument, in the Llibre d'Alcoatí and the Catalan Boethius.^[3]
• 1325 – Muntaner tells of a single Christian leading thirty or forty Saracen captives on one rope.^[9]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the word as a number of threads of hemp, cotton or esparto twisted together.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rope or cord: threads of hemp, esparto or synthetic fibre twisted together into a flexible cylinder: Van lligar la barca amb una corda gruixuda.^[11][5][1]
2. The string of a bow or crossbow; a string of a tennis racket.^[11]
3. The string of a musical instrument;^[1] instrument de corda, a stringed instrument.^[11][1]
4. (geometry) A chord, a straight line joining two points of a curve.^[5][1]
5. The spring of a clock or a mechanical toy, in donar corda.^[5][1]
6. (Valencia) The crest of a range of hills.^[3]

Word family

• cordada
• cordal
• cordam
• cordar
• descordar
• cordatge
• cordell
• corder
• cordill
• cordó

Related words

• Latin chorda
• Occitan còrda
• Spanish cuerda

Usage notes

corda is also a form of the verb cordar "to fasten", which is derived from this noun.^[4]

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 Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. corda
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 931
4. ^ a b c d e Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 240
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. corda
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1881
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 273
8. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. corda
9. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. corda
10. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. corda
11. ^ 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. corda