dur

dur¹ to carry

Etymology tree of dur¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin dūcō

Catalan dur

Romanian duce

Spanish ducir

From the same root · dur¹

Latin abdūcō ← dūcō

Latin addūcō ← dūcō

Latin circumdūcō ← dūcō

Latin condūcō ← dūcō

Latin dēdūcō ← dūcō

Latin dīdūcō ← dūcō

Latin ductiō ← dūcō

Latin ducto ← dūcō

Latin ductor ← dūcō

Latin ductus ← dūcō

Latin dux ← dūcō

Latin ēdūcō ← dūcō

Latin indūcō ← dūcō

Latin intrōdūcō ← dūcō

Latin obdūcō ← dūcō

Latin perduco ← dūcō

Latin praeduco ← dūcō

Latin prōdūcō ← dūcō

Latin redūcō ← dūcō

Latin sēdūcō ← dūcō

Latin subdūcō ← dūcō

Latin trādūcō ← dūcō

Romanian reduce ← dūcō

Pronunciation

• Balearic, Central, Northern, Northwestern: [ˈdu]^[1]
• Valencia: [ˈduɾ]^[1]

Forms

dur (first-person singular present duc, first-person singular preterite duguí, past participle dut)^[1] The present is irregular: duc, duus or dus, duu or du; the subjunctive is dugui and the participle dut.^[2][3] Old Catalan had the participle duyt, duyta and the preterite dux or duys.^[4] Local forms include an imperative dús at Tortosa, a present dúu in the Alt Empordà and the Garrotxa, and a participle duit at Olot and Ripoll.^[4] Wiktionary lists dure and duure as variant infinitives.^[1]

Etymology

The word for carrying is inherited from Latin dūcō (“to lead, conduct”), which the Catalan dictionaries cite by its infinitive.^{[4][5][6][7][1]}

Coromines notes that the Latin verb died out without popular descendants in most of the Romance languages, and that today only Catalan and Romanian duce keep it in full use.^[4] In the Middle Ages it still lived as Old Italian durre, Old Occitan duire and Old French duire; in Occitan it survives only a little in the Dauphiné, and in French only in a few dialect remnants of Belgium and Picardy with secondary meanings.^[4] The REW also lists Spanish ducir.^[8]

The Catalan infinitive has always been ⟨dur⟩, without exception.^[4] Coromines finds no evidence that Vulgar Latin shortened this infinitive, as it seems to have done with dīcō; the other Romance languages continue the classical stress on the first syllable.^[4]

The Latin verb comes from *doukō and the Proto-Indo-European root *dewk- (“to draw, pull”), which is also behind English tow.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record Coromines gives is a letter of 1251 from the procurator Vilamur to the bishop of Urgell, which warns that if certain men pass through Roussillon they will be taken and lose tot quant duran “everything they carry”.^[4][5] Another early example, in the rhymed legend of Saint Severus, has Veronica take a cloth to the emperor in Rome (-l drap durà a l'emperador).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the verb for carrying, transporting and leading: Llull says that the waters carry earth into the sea, and in Jaume Roig's Spill a narrow path is one qui du a vida “which leads to life”.^[9][10] Old dictionaries gloss it with Spanish llevar and traer, as Escrig does for Valencian in 1851 and Amengual for Mallorcan in 1858.^[11][12] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 defines it simply as portar and menar.^[3]

Coromines contrasts the decline of the Latin verb elsewhere with its vigour in Catalan: it is alive in the Balearics, in nearly all of the Principality and in Valencian in general, and has fallen out of use only in Ribagorça, Alghero, much of the Pallars Sobirà and parts of Roussillon.^[4] The Balearic dialects have uses of their own, such as dur camí “to follow a road” in Eivissa.^[4]

Old derivatives of the family include adur “to bring”, already in Faraudo's medieval texts, and the pronominal endur-se “to take away with one”.^[10][5] Set phrases of the modern language are dur a terme and dur a cap, “to carry out”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1251 – a letter of the procurator Vilamur to the bishop of Urgell: tot quant duran.^[4]
• 1261–1271 – dur in the Furs de València.^[13]
• 13th century – Llull uses the verb in the sense “to lead, bring”.^[9][6]
• 1416 – a Barcelona document says that P. Rey took away (se-n dux) clothes lost in a ship.^[4]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig's Spill: qui du a vida.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general defines dur as “to carry, to lead”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To carry or take (someone or something) to a place: Demà et duré el paquet a casa.^[2][14]
2. To have on one, to carry (money, a tool, a bag): No duc diners a sobre.^[14][5]
3. To wear (clothes, an ornament): Sempre duia un barret de palla.^[5][4]
4. To bring (something towards the speaker).^[1][11]
5. To lead or guide (a person or animal); to take along in one's company.^[5][10]
6. dur a terme, dur a cap: to carry out, to accomplish.^[2]

Word family

• endur-se
• adur

dur² hard

Etymology tree of dur²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin dūrus

Catalan dur

French dur

Romanian dur

Italian duro

Spanish duro

From the same root · dur²

Latin dūrē ← dūrus

Latin dūritia ← dūrus

Latin dūrō ← dūrus

Latin indūrō ← dūrus

Latin obdūrēscō ← dūrus

Pronunciation

• Balearic, Central, Northern, Northwestern: [ˈdu]^[1]
• Valencia: [ˈduɾ]^[1]

Forms

dur (feminine dura, masculine plural durs, feminine plural dures)^[1] Outside Valencia the commonest pronunciation is [du], with the -r silent, although monosyllables such as pur, cor and mar usually keep it.^[15] The pronunciation with the -r ([dur], [durt]) is heard at the northern and southern ends of the language: in Roussillon, the Conflent and upper Cerdanya, and in the Priorat and northern Valencia.^[15] The manuscript of Reixac's Questa del Sant Grasal writes tur several times;^[15] Coromines considers it a real variant, not a scribal error.^[15]

Etymology

The word for hard is inherited from Latin dūrus (“hard, solid, enduring”).^{[15][16][17][7][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan dur, French dur, Spanish duro, Portuguese duro, Italian duro and Romanian dur.^[8][1]

The origin of the Latin adjective is not settled.^[18] Wiktionary derives it from *dūros and Proto-Indo-European *dweh₂rós (“long”), which also gave Ancient Greek δηρός (dērós, “long”), but notes that this needs a change of meaning from long to lasting; it gives as an alternative the root *deru- (“hard, fast”).^[1] The OLD thinks the word probably began with ⟨dr-⟩ and compares Lithuanian drū́tas (“firm, strong”).^[19]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds the adjective from the start in both its material and its figurative senses.^[15] In Desclot's chronicle a king's brother, a monk, tells the people that it seems a hard thing to him (dura cosa li semblava) to leave his order; the Vides de sants rosselloneses speak of a hard mind and hard hearts (ab dura cervela … ab durs coratges).^[15] Llull uses it of matter: the more earth there is in iron, the harder it is.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts already show most of the modern senses: hard to cure, as of diseases; painful or wearisome; unfeeling and without mercy, as the heart a knight should have against traitors in Guillem de Vàroich; the opposite of soft, of parts of the body; and stubborn, as those who are “hard of heart to believe”.^[10] The adverb durament was frequent from early on in the sense “gravely, energetically”, as in Jaume I's chronicle.^[15]

Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 lists the senses hard, unbearable, cruel, stubborn, harsh-tempered and, of style, rough.^[20] Martí Gadea gives dur d'orella “hard of hearing”.^[21]

The derivatives are old: duresa appears in Llull, duralló “lump” in the 15th century, the learned durícia in 1408, and endurir about 1400 beside the older endureir of Llull.^[15][17]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in Llull, the Consolat de Mar, the Vides de sants rosselloneses and Desclot.^[15]
• 14th century – duresa in Llull.^[17]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge, in Lo somni, contrasts soft and hard breasts.^[15]
• 1408 – first record of the learned durícia.^[15][17]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary lists six senses of the adjective.^[20]

Meanings

Adjective

1. hard: resisting being cut, scratched or pressed in: Aquesta pedra és tan dura que no s'hi clava res.^[7][16][1]
2. Tougher or less soft than it should be: El pa d'ahir ja és dur.^[7][16]
3. difficult, demanding effort, painful to do or bear: Va ser un hivern molt dur.^[7][16][1]
4. harsh, unfeeling; strict or severe with others.^[16][10]
5. Stubborn, obstinate.^[10][20]

Word family

• durament
• duresa
• durall
• duralló
• endurir
• enduriment
• durbec