escoltar

Forms

escoltar (first-person singular present escolto, first-person singular preterite escoltí, past participle escoltat); root stress: (Northern) /u/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /o/^[1] Medieval texts also write scoltar (Llull) and ascoltar (Eiximenis).^[2][3] In Roussillon the verb is reduced to [əskuˈta], Benasque has skota, and in Ribagorça, around Graus and in some Catalan-speaking villages, the form is eskúlta, a transition towards Aragonese and Spanish.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ascultō (“to listen”), a Vulgar Latin form of Latin auscultō (“to listen, listen to”) with the diphthong /au/ reduced to /a/.^[2][4][5][1] Medieval Latin texts record the reduced form as ⟨ascultare⟩.^[6][7]

Coromines explains the initial /e/ by the common change of initial /as/ to /es/, as in escondir beside Latin abscondō and estella beside Spanish astilla.^[2][8] The form with /as/ survives in Italian ascoltare and in Old Spanish ascuchar, the archaic form; the other main Romance languages turned it into /es/: French écouter, Occitan escoltar, Portuguese escutar and Spanish escuchar.^[2]

The Latin verb is usually analysed as a compound of ⟨aus-⟩, the old stem of auris (“ear”), and a second element from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”), though some take that element from *ḱel- (“to incline”).^[1][9] The learned auscultar is a doublet borrowed directly from Latin.^[1][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest Catalan record Coromines gives is a document of about 1250 from the Alt Cardener, in which a cleric goes back in the evening to listen (per escoltar) whether some people were there.^[2] Llull uses the verb in Blanquerna for preachers who were not listened to (no foren scoltats).^[2] From the start it meant to listen attentively, to apply one's hearing to something.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The core sense has not changed: Coromines notes that the verb has stayed a basic word of the language in every period and every region.^[2] The sense "to heed, obey" was already medieval: Eiximenis writes of not having been free to hear Mass ne a ascoltar la paraula de Deu in 1381.^[3] A proverb Eiximenis quotes warns that whoever listens at holes often hears his own misfortune.^[2]

The reflexive escoltar-se, "to speak slowly and with self-satisfaction", appears in Escrig's Valencian dictionary of 1851 and in Martí Gadea's of 1891, and Fabra included it in 1932.^[11][12][13] The DCVB also records escoltar-se of a person who pays too much attention to his own health.^[14]

The noun escolta has meant a military lookout or spy since Jaume I; in the sense "boy scout" it and escoltisme were coined by Josep Maria Batista i Roca about 1930.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – escoltar in a document from the Alt Cardener.^[2]
• 1272 – first occurrence in CICA, in the Costums de Tortosa.^[15]
• late 13th century – Llull uses scoltats in Blanquerna.^[2]
• 1381 – Eiximenis writes ascoltar la paraula de Deu.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia defines the verb as to apply one's ear, to attend.^[16]
• c. 1930 – the noun escolta is used for a boy scout.^[2]
• 1932 – Fabra gives the transitive verb and the reflexive escoltar-se.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To listen to; to pay attention to what someone says or to a sound: Escolta bé la música d'aquesta pel·lícula.^[17][5]
2. (transitive) To heed; to take notice of someone or of their advice.^[17][14]
3. (pronominal) To speak with an air of being pleased with and admiring oneself.^[17][5]
4. (pronominal) To pay excessive attention to one's own state of health.^[14]
5. (figurative) To let oneself be carried along by an impulse or feeling.^[14][13]

Word family

• escolta
• escoltador
• escoltament
• escoltívol
• escolteta
• escoltisme

Related words

• auscultar
• Latin auscultō
• Italian ascoltare
• Spanish escuchar
• French écouter

Usage notes

The DCVB has a second escoltar, a form of escortar "to escort".^[14] Coromines explains it as escolta used in the Spanish manner for escorta "escort", which comes from Italian scorta.^[2] Labèrnia still gave "to accompany a convoy" as a sense of escoltar in 1839.^[16]

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 g h i j k l m n o 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, 536
3. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. escoltar
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 334
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. escoltar
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. ascultare
7. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. ascultare
8. ^ 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, 766
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. auscultō
10. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. escoltar
11. ^ Escrig, José (1851), Diccionario valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. escoltar
12. ^ Martí Gadea, Joaquim (1891), Novísimo diccionario general valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. escoltar
13. ^ a b c Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. escoltar
14. ^ 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. escoltar
15. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. escoltar
16. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. escoltar
17. ^ 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. escoltar