doble

Forms

doble m or f (masculine and feminine plural dobles)^[1] The DCVB records the pronunciations /ˈdobblə/ and /ˈdoβle/.^[2] In the Matarranya doble means stout or sturdy, as in Tortosa, the Urgell, the Camp de Tarragona and Mallorca.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin duplus (“double, twofold”).^[4][2][5][1] The DCVB also allows a Vulgar Latin *duple, a cross of the Latin word with its relative duplex (“twofold”).^[2]

The same Latin word is Italian doppio, French double, Occitan doble and Spanish doble.^[6][1]

The Latin adjective is a compound of the stem of duo (“two”) and the root of plicō (“to fold”).^[4][5] Wiktionary traces it to *duplos and compares Ancient Greek διπλόος (diplóos, “double”).^[1]

Because Latin had ⟨duplus⟩ beside ⟨triplus⟩ and ⟨centuplus⟩, the Romance speakers reanalysed the ending and formed ⟨tres-dobles⟩, ⟨deu-dobles⟩ and ⟨cent-dobles⟩ “threefold, tenfold, a hundredfold”.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines places the word among the oldest of the language; his first quotations are the Homilies d'Organyà, where God repays almsgiving a cent-dobles “a hundredfold”, and Llull's Blanquerna, where the understanding grasps a thing better after a doble retornament “double return” to it.^[4] In the Customs of Tortosa it is already a noun, “a double amount”: the guilty party must pay el doble.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the feminine noun dobla meant “a double amount”, and it became the name of a coin, recorded from Llull on; its derivative dobló is in Muntaner, and in the Balearic Islands dobler, at first a coin worth two diners, came to mean money in general.^[4]

An important shift gave the adjective the sense “thick, stout”, first in a Barcelona municipal document of 1419;^[4] Coromines found it especially in the Baix Urgell, the Camp de Tarragona, Tortosa and Mallorca, and as a noun, doble “thickness”.^[4] The 1839 dictionaries already list “thick, of much body” and “short and stocky” beside the sense “twice as much”.^[7][8]

Medieval texts used the locutions al doble and en doble “twice over”, as Roig's Spill and the Furs de València show.^[9] Pal·las adds the senses of a double flower and of a two-faced, deceitful person.^[10]

Timeline

• 1100s – a cent-dobles “a hundredfold” in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[4]
• 1200–1249 – doble in the Usatges de Barcelona, CICA's first record.^[11]
• 1271 – Llull uses dobles “twice as many” in the Llibre de contemplació.^[12]
• 1395 – al doble “twice as much” in Antoni Canals's translation of Valerius Maximus.^[9]
• 1419 – doble “thick” in a Barcelona municipal document.^[4]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary gives the senses “twice as much” and “thick”.^[7]
• 1932 – Fabra defines the word as a magnitude equal to twice another.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. double, twofold: equal to twice another quantity: Aquesta feina li ha costat doble temps.^[14][5]
2. Stronger, thicker or more concentrated than usual, said of a drink, an ink or a cloth.^[14]
3. Made of two equal things or two of the same kind: una doble porta.^[14][2]
4. Showing a duality; of a person, two-faced, deceitful.^[14][10]
5. (dialectal) stout, sturdy.^[2][3]

Noun

1. (masculine) The double: a quantity twice another: Avui ha vingut el doble de gent.^[14]
2. (masculine and feminine) A person who looks very like another; a stand-in who replaces an actor.^[14]

Related words

• dos
• doblar
• duplicar
• Latin duplus
• Spanish doble

Usage notes

The DCVB has a second masculine noun doble, a fold, or each layer of something folded over, which it takes as a postverbal noun of doblar.^[2] Faraudo quotes it from Isabel de Villena's Vita Christi of 1497, where a cloak is folded de molts dobles “in many folds”.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. doble
3. ^ a b Blanc Grau, Miquel (1994), Garba: mil paraules de Calaceit, Barcelona: Columna, p. s.v. doble
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. 3, 192
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. doble
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2802
7. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. doble
8. ^ Una Societat de Catalans (1839), Diccionari catalá-castellá-llatí-frances-italiá, 2 vols., Barcelona: Joseph Torner, p. s.v. doble
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. doble
10. ^ a b Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. doble
11. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. doble
12. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. doble
13. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. doble
14. ^ 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. doble