greu

Forms

greu m or f (masculine and feminine plural greus)^[1] The DCVB gives /gɾéw/ for the whole language area;^[1] Wiktionary gives a slightly lower /e/ for Northern Catalan.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *grevis, a Vulgar Latin form of Latin gravis (“heavy, grave”) whose vowel was changed under the influence of its opposite levis (“light”).^[3][2][4][5] Wiktionary notes that the form ⟨grevis⟩ is attested in a glossary of the 8th century.^[1]

The same Vulgar Latin form is Old Occitan greu, Old French grief, Romanian greu, Italian greve and Old Spanish grieve, beside the forms with /a/, Italian grave and Spanish grave.^[6][7] Mistral's dictionary records the modern Occitan grèu in the same senses.^[8]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Italic *gʷraus and Proto-Indo-European *gʷréh₂us (“heavy”), the source also of Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús) and Gothic 𐌺𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌿𐍃 (kaurus).^[9][1] The learned gravar “to burden”, recorded in Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839, and gravetat come directly from the Latin family.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest text in CICA with the word is the Llibre dels judicis, of the first half of the 12th century.^[10] Coromines's first record is a document of 1242 from the Conca de Tremp, whose writer says that a refusal pareg-me greu “seemed grievous to me”.^[3] In the first period of the language, and particularly in Llull, the word still had its material sense “heavy”: sent hom greu e leu “one feels heavy and light”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Already in the 13th century, and always afterwards, the figurative senses “important, difficult, troublesome” prevailed: Jaume I says that something ens era greu “grieved us”, and Joanot Martorell writes of a greu captivitat “harsh captivity”.^[3] From the beginning greu was also used as an adverb and in verbal phrases: ésser greu “to grieve, to pain” was very common in the Middle Ages, and saber greu “to be sorry” is frequent in Desclot and Muntaner and lives on in the modern language.^[3][11] Coromines notes that the classics say molt greu, the word being adverbial in the phrase, and that the modern molt de greu arose when speakers began to feel it as a noun.^[3]

As a noun Old Catalan greu also meant a grievance, a harm or an annoyance.^[11] The derivative greuge “grievance” is a postverbal noun of the old verb greujar “to burden with taxes”, and greujós is found in Cerverí in the 13th century.^[4]

Labèrnia in 1839 marked the senses “grave”, “vehement” and “cruel” as old and kept the phrase saber greu.^[12] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 gives the word again for “heavy” and, figuratively, “of great importance”, with the musical sense “low” and the accent greu.^[13]

Timeline

• 1100–1149 – greu in the Llibre dels judicis.^[10]
• 1242 – a document from the Conca de Tremp, Coromines's first record.^[3]
• 1298 – Jafuda Bonsenyor's Sentències morals: De les canes m'es greu “I am sorry about my grey hairs”.^[11]
• 1325 – Muntaner: faent semblant que m sabia greu “pretending that I was sorry”.^[11]
• 1381 – Eiximenis uses the noun greus for annoyances to be borne.^[11]
• 1839 – Labèrnia marks most of the adjective's senses as old.^[12]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general defines the word as “heavy”, “of great importance” and, in music, “low”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. heavy, weighty;^[1] (physics) subject to gravity.^[14][5][1]
2. serious, grave: of great and harmful importance: Ha tingut un accident greu a la carretera.^[14][5]
3. Of great dignity and seriousness, solemn.^[14][5]
4. (music, phonetics) Low in pitch: low, bass.^[14][1]
5. accent greu: the grave accent (`), written over a and open e and o.^[13]

Noun

1. (physics) A body subject to gravity.^[14][15]
2. (music) A low note or register.^[14][15]
3. saber greu (to someone): to be sorry, to regret: Em sap greu no haver-te trucat.^[13][11]

Word family

• agreujar
• agreujament
• agreujant
• desagreujar
• greuge
• desgreuge
• greujós
• greument
• engrevir

Related words

• gravetat
• gravar
• Latin gravis
• Occitan grèu
• Spanish grave

Usage notes

Labèrnia records the rhyming saying sit sab greu, posathi un breu “if it grieves you, put an amulet on it” beside sit sab mal, posathi sal.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. greu
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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, 649
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 471
5. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. greu
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3855
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. gravis
8. ^ Mistral, Frédéric (1878–1886), Lou Tresor dóu Felibrige, ou dictionnaire provençal-français, 2 vols., Aix-en-Provence, p. 2, 95
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. gravis
10. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. greu
11. ^ 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. greu
12. ^ a b c Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. greu
13. ^ a b c d Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. greu
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. greu
15. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. greu