foc

Forms

foc m (plural focs)^[1] Medieval texts write foch and ffoch, with ⟨-ch⟩ for the final /k/.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin focus (“hearth, fireplace”).^{[4][5][6][7][1]} In Classical Latin the word meant the domestic hearth; in Vulgar Latin it came to mean fire in general, the element.^[5] Coromines and Pascual date this use in Latin to at least the 4th century, when the word took the place of ignis (“fire”).^[8]

The same Latin word is Occitan fòc, Spanish fuego, Portuguese fogo, French feu, Italian fuoco and Romanian foc.^[1][9] The troubadours wrote Old Occitan foc and fuec.^[1] A learned doublet, ⟨focus⟩, kept the classical sense of hearth before it came to mean the point where rays meet;^[4][1] Coromines finds it, as ⟨foco⟩, in Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839.^[4][1]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[10][1] De Vaan rejects a connection with fax (“torch”) as formally impossible.^[10] Wiktionary lists proposals that derive it from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to shine”) or, following Matasović, from *dʰegʷʰ- (“to burn”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's first record is in the Homilies de Tortosa, of the end of the 12th or the beginning of the 13th century.^[11] Coromines finds the word from the beginnings of the language in its main senses, a bonfire, a fire set somewhere, and fire as an element: in Jaume I's chronicle the king's men light fires in more than three hundred places in the scrub at Capdepera, so that the Moors of Menorca will think a great army is camped there.^[4] Llull uses it for the element, whose power ends where that of water begins.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

Llull treats fire as one of the four elements, hot and dry by nature.^[2] Figurative senses appear in the 15th century: the ardour of the passions and creative inspiration in the poems of Pere Martines, and llançar foc for violent anger in a document of Igualada of 1447.^[3] Medicine used dar foc for cauterizing, in a sermon of Vicent Ferrer and in Manuel Dieç's book on horses (1424), and Jaume Roig's Spill (1460) has metre foc for firing a bombard.^[3]

The sense of the Latin word, a household, survives in foc 'inhabited house', which the DCVB records from 1358; it appears dozens of times in the census of 1359.^[4] In Valencia a molí de foc is a steam-driven mill, as opposed to a molí de sang turned by animals, and foc de sant Antoni is the traditional name of a disease.^[4] The firework display now called castell de focs is already castell de foc in the Baró de Maldà.^[4] Words of the family are dated by Bruguera: afogar in Llull, fogar in 1803, desfogar about 1900 in Verdaguer.^[6]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 defines the word as the heat and light given off by a burning body, once held to be one of the four elements.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – first record in CICA, in the Homilies de Tortosa.^[11]
• 13th century, second half – Jaume I's chronicle and Llull use the word often.^[11][4]
• 1350 – a charcoal fire in the book of provisions of the canons of Tortosa.^[13]
• 1358 – the DCVB's first record of foc 'household'.^[4]
• 1424 – dar fochs 'to cauterize' in Manuel Dieç's book on horses.^[3]
• 1447 – lança foch 'flies into a rage' in a document of Igualada.^[3]
• 1460 – ffoch en bombarda in Jaume Roig's Spill.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia records the learned ⟨foco⟩ 'focus'.^[4]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general defines foc.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. fire; the heat and light given off by a burning body: Vam fer foc a la vora del riu.^[14][7][1]
2. A burning mass; the fire on which food is cooked: Treu la cassola del foc.^[14][7]
3. A bonfire (foguera).^[7][5]
4. A destructive fire, a blaze (incendi): Hi va haver foc al magatzem.^[7][5]
5. The hearth (llar); by extension a household, an inhabited house.^[7][5]
6. (figurative) ardour, passion.^[7][14]
7. (military) The firing of guns, as in arma de foc and alto el foc.^[5][1]
8. (nautical) A jib, a variant of floc.^[5][15]

Word family

• fogaina
• fogall
• fogó
• afocat
• afogar
• desfogar
• contrafoc
• correfoc
• tallafoc

Related words

• fogar
• fogós
• focus
• Occitan fòc
• Spanish fuego

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 Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. foc
3. ^ a b c d e f Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. foc
4. ^ 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. 4, 62
5. ^ a b c d e f g Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. foc
6. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 409
7. ^ a b c d e f g Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. foc
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 968
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
10. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. foc
12. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. foc
13. ^ Gual Camarena, Miguel, Vocabulario del comercio medieval, online edition, Universidad de Murcia, https://www.um.es/lexico-comercio-medieval, p. s.v. foc
14. ^ 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. foc
15. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. foc