gola

Forms

gola f (plural goles)^[1] The final vowel is /ə/ in Central and Balearic Catalan and /a/ in North-Western Catalan and Valencian.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan gola, which is inherited from Latin gula (“throat, gullet”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Italian gola, French gueule, Romanian gură (“mouth”) and Portuguese gola.^[6][1] In Spanish, Corominas considers Spanish gola a word that came from outside, by different routes; the vice is gula, a Latinism.^[7]

Wiktionary gives the traditional derivation of the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *gʷel- (“throat”), but notes de Vaan's doubts.^[1] De Vaan finds that a root with a labiovelar cannot give Latin ⟨gul-⟩, and suggests that the word may be onomatopoeic.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tariff of the Barcelona brokers of 1271 lists the price of a dozen goles de lúdries, the throat skins of otters.^[3] In the 13th-century Roussillon lives of the saints, Saint Remigius curses those who burnt his grain: their women will have goitres sots la gola “under the throat”.^[3] The word meant the throat, as it does today.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Very early gola also meant the mouth of a stretch of water: Jaume I's chronicle puts a boat a la gola del estany, and a document of 1340 the gola del grau of Tortosa.^[3][9] The irrigation channels of Valencia have their gola at the sea, and in Catalonia the word names deep pools in a river, such as les Goles de Fumanya in the Lluçanès.^[3] Coromines rejects the claim that gola in this sense was Valencian and gorja Catalan.^[3]

Llull uses the word for the sin of gluttony, and once the learned gula instead;^[3] Eiximenis and Vicent Ferrer follow, and Onofre Pou glosses it with Latin gula in 1575.^[3][10] Faraudo also records gola for an abyss (Eiximenis, 1381) and for the mouth of a beast.^[9] In the Balearic Islands it can mean greed or craving.^[3]

Labèrnia (1839) adds the metal crescent worn round the neck by officers on duty, and Fabra (1932) a stiff collar with a starched ruff and the ogee moulding.^[11][12] Bruguera dates golós to Llull and engolir to about 1490.^[4]

Timeline

• 1271 – goles de lúdries in a tariff of the Barcelona brokers.^[3]
• 13th century – sots la gola in the Roussillon lives of the saints.^[3][4]
• 1244–1274 – la gola del port in the Llibre dels fets of Jaume I.^[9]
• 1272 – Llull sets temperance against gola in the Medicina de pecat.^[9]
• 1340 – la gola del grau of Tortosa in a document.^[3]
• 1460 – actes de gola e luxuria in the Tirant lo Blanc.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia lists the officer's gorget among the senses.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The front part of the neck.^[13][2]
2. The throat, the space between the soft palate and the start of the oesophagus: Em fa mal la gola des d'ahir.^[13][5]
3. The maw of certain animals: la gola del tigre.^[13][1]
4. A narrow entrance to a place, such as a harbour, a river mouth or a chasm.^[13][5]
5. A very deep stretch in the course of a river.^[13][5]
6. gluttony, an inordinate appetite for food and drink.^[13][1]
7. A stiff collar with a small starched ruff.^[13][5]
8. (military, historical) A metal crescent worn hanging from the neck by officers on duty; the gorget of a suit of armour.^[13][5]
9. (architecture) An ogee, a moulding with an S-shaped profile.^[13][1]

Word family

• golós
• golut
• golada
• engolir
• engolar
• esgolar-se

Related words

• golafre
• goleta
• Latin gula
• Spanish gola
• French gueule

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. gola
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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, 546
4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 462
5. ^ a b c d e f Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. gola
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3910
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 159
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. gola
10. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. gola
11. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. gola
12. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. gola
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. gola