llegum

Forms

llegum m (plural llegums)^[1] Old Catalan wrote legum.^[2][3] The DCVB records [ʎəɣúm] and [ʎeɣúm].^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan legum, the medieval spelling, which is inherited from Latin legūmen (“pulse, leguminous plant”).^[2][4][5][1]

The same Latin word is Occitan legum, Old French legun, Italian legume, Portuguese legume, Spanish legumbre and Romanian legumă.^[1][6] The Catalan word has always been masculine, like the Latin neuter in most Romance languages; only the Spanish and Romanian words are feminine.^[2][6] Coromines compares the loss of the Latin ending with ordim, from a derivative in ⟨-imen⟩.^[7]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain.^[1] The ancients connected it with legō (“to gather”), since pulses are picked by hand rather than cut, and the OLD analyses it as that verb with the suffix -men.^[8] Wiktionary notes that the ⟨-ū-⟩ is unexplained and that it may be a loanword.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is first recorded in the Lleuda de Cotlliure of 1249, a toll list.^[2][5][9] In the oldest texts it is a collective name for pulses as goods: a Roussillon document of 1284 says that all grain and all pulse (tot legum) pays two eimines per hundred.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts use the singular for pulses as a whole (tot legum, negun legum) in documents of 1306 and 1311 and in the Customs of Tortosa, and the plural for the kinds.^[2] Llull's Blanquerna is given alms of bread and pulse.^[2] Writers on diet and medicine call them heating and windy: Eiximenis says the Church does not forbid them on fast days, and Jaume Roig calls them fumosos e ventosos.^[3][2] Onofre Pou in 1575 names the pod as the covering of the llegums.^[2]

Labèrnia defines it as the grain that grows in a pod, with llegums secs for dried pulses and llegum cuyt for an impatient person.^[10] Fabra gave the botanical sense of the fruit itself, and the DIEC2 distinguishes the fruit, the seed and the plant.^[11][12] The DCVB also records it for a coarse or indecent word.^[4] Derivatives are llegumet and the learned lleguminós, and Coromines adds llegumada, llegumar and llegumera.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1249 – first record, in the Lleuda de Cotlliure.^[2][5]
• 1284 – tot legum in a document from Roussillon.^[2]
• 1311 – negun legum in another Roussillon document.^[2]
• 1381 – Eiximenis writes legums in the Terç del Crestià.^[3]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig writes llegums in the Spill.^[3]
• 1575 – Onofre Pou's Thesaurus puerilis names the pod of the llegums.^[2]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary heads llegum.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra defines it as the fruit of a dehiscent pod.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (botany) The fruit of the leguminous plants, a pod that splits into two valves and holds several seeds: legume, pod.^[12][9]
2. The seed in this fruit, eaten fresh or dried: pulse: Avui dinarem llegums amb arròs.^[12][9]
3. A plant that bears these fruits.^[12]
4. (dated) A coarse or indecent word.^[4]

Word family

• llegumet
• lleguminós
• llegumada
• llegumera

Related words

• Latin legūmen
• Occitan legum
• Spanish legumbre

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. 5, 135
3. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. llegum
4. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. llegum
5. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 538
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 626
7. ^ 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. 6, 98
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. llegum
10. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. llegum
11. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. llegum
12. ^ a b c d 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. llegum