home

Forms

home m (plural homes or hòmens)^[1] The plural is homes or, in old and dialectal use, hòmens.^[2][1] The DCVB records pronunciations from [ɔ́mə] to [ɔ́me], [ɔ́ma], [ɔ́mi] and [ɔ́mu].^[3] Old Catalan declined the word in two cases: subject om or hom, object ome or home, plural òmens.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan home, the object case of the medieval noun whose subject case was hom; both are inherited from Latin homō (“human being, man”).^{[4][3][5][2][1]} Coromines explains that the old Latin declination, nominative ⟨homo⟩, genitive ⟨hominis⟩, plural ⟨homines⟩, gave in preliterary Catalan ⟨om⟩ as subject, ⟨òmen⟩ as object and ⟨òmens⟩ in the plural; once the -n was lost, the forms were ⟨om⟩ / ⟨ome⟩ in the singular and ⟨òmens⟩ in the plural.^[4]

The same Latin word is Spanish hombre, Portuguese homem, French homme, Italian uomo, Romanian om and Occitan òme.^[6][1]

Latin ⟨homo⟩ was not only the male but the term for every member of the human species, the male being vir; in Vulgar Latin ⟨homo⟩ took on both functions.^[4] The Latin word comes from older ⟨hemō⟩, *hemō, from *ǵʰm̥mṓ (“earthling”), a derivative of the word for earth; it is related to 𐌲𐌿𐌼𐌰 (guma) “man”.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

A 12th-century document from the Alt Cardener has the object form: pres l'ome e l'aver, “he took the man and the goods”.^[4] The Homilies d'Organyà use the subject form: si un om parlave tan gint co un àngel, “if a man spoke as nobly as an angel”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The two-case system lasted into the first period of the written language, as it did for déu / déus;^[4] Llull still keeps it, and where his manuscripts break it Coromines blames careless copyists.^[4] By about 1300 the distinction had been forgotten: home became the ordinary noun for the male human being, and hom was left as a pronoun, “one”.^[4] Eiximenis already uses home very little.^[4]

The medieval texts have the set phrases bon home, a good or a notable man, gentil home, a nobleman, and ric home, a great lord.^[8] Labèrnia in 1839 also records the senses “husband” and “a card game”.^[9] Bruguera dates hom as a pronoun to the 12th century and gives the derivatives of home.^[5]

Timeline

• 12th century – l'ome in a document from the Alt Cardener;^[4] om in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[4]
• 1230–1257 – un om savi in a document from Peramola.^[4]
• 13th century – Llull asks què és hom, still observing the old declension.^[4]
• c. 1300 – the difference between subject and object forms is lost.^[4]
• 1325 – bons homens and gentils homens in Muntaner's chronicle.^[8]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary records the sense “husband”.^[9]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary defines the word as the human being.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A human being; the human species.^[11][3]
2. A man: a male person, especially an adult.^[11][3][1]
3. (colloquial) A husband.^[3][1]
4. A man seen as having a given quality, profession or condition: home de lletres, a man of letters.^[3][12]

Interjection

1. Said to a man to show surprise, impatience, annoyance or disagreement.^[1]

Word family

• hom
• homenada
• homenejar
• homenenc
• homenet
• homenia
• homenívol
• homenot
• superhome
• milhomes

Related words

• homenatge
• homenatjar
• prohom
• humà
• Latin homō
• Spanish hombre
• French homme

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. home
3. ^ a b c d e f Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. home
4. ^ 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. 4, 801
5. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 492
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4170
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. homō
8. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. home
9. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. home
10. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. home
11. ^ a b 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. home
12. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. home 1