lligar

Forms

lligar (first-person singular present lligo, first-person singular preterite lliguí, past participle lligat)^[1] Old Catalan had the forms liar and ligar;^[2][3][1] lliguar appears in Roig's Spill.^[2][3][1] The DCVB records the pronunciations [ʎiɣá], [ʎiɣáɾ], [ʎiʝá] and [ʎiʝέ̞].^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan ligar, which is inherited from Latin ligō (“to fasten, bind”).^[2][4][5][1] The same Latin verb is Italian legare, French lier, Occitan liar, Spanish liar, Portuguese liar and Romanian lega.^[6][1]

Coromines explains that the Latin verb first gave ⟨liar⟩, with the regular loss of /g/ between /i/ and a stressed vowel, and that this was later remade as ⟨lligar⟩ under the influence of the Latin word.^[2] The form ⟨liar⟩ is used in the Homilies, in the rhymed legend of Seville and in Llull's verse, while his prose has mostly ⟨ligar⟩, perhaps through the copyists.^[2] The noun ⟨liam⟩ “bond” kept the form without /g/ longer, because its Latin model was rare.^[2] The /i/ left in hiatus did not become /e/, as it did in Italian; and though the verb was always inherited, its frequent use in the language of lawyers and clerics brought back the /g/.^[2] In Spanish, by contrast, the usual verb is atar and ligar is learned.^[2]

The Latin verb is probably a back-formation from its compounds, and is traced to *leyǵ- (“to bind”).^[1] De Vaan reconstructs *-lig-ā- and gives the root only with a question mark.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The GDLC dates the first record to the 12th century, in the Homilies;^[5][2] Coromines dates the form ligades to the 12th century and the Homilies' liad to about 1200.^[5][2] The Homilies make Christ say that he will be betrayed, taken, liad, “bound”, and spat upon.^[2] The sense is the physical one, “to bind with cords”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts also use the verb of binding books, in a Mallorcan account, and of tying the courses of a wall with a stone, in Sant Vicent Ferrer.^[3] The infinitive used as a noun, ligar, meant a woman's headdress or hair arrangement, in Bernat Metge (1381) and in a Mallorcan proclamation of 1396.^[3] In Roig's Spill (1460) lliguar is to cast a spell that prevents a marriage from being consummated.^[3]

The DCVB lists binding sheaves, mending broken earthenware with staples, linking things into a whole and working a liquid into a paste.^[4] Labèrnia adds the joining of the parts of a speech and, of babies, taking the breast.^[8] Fabra and the DIEC2 give the figurative tenir les mans lligades, to be prevented from acting.^[9]

Timeline

• 12th century – first record: ligades, and liad in the Homilies, which Coromines dates to about 1200.^[2][5]
• 13th century – liar in the rhymed legend of Seville.^[2]
• 1272 – liams “bonds” in the Costums de Tortosa.^[2][4]
• 1306–1324 – lligar in the Manual de consells of Valencia.^[10]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge uses ligar “headdress”.^[3]
• 1460 – Roig's Spill uses lliguar of a spell.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia lists it.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tie together with a cord or the like: Lliga bé les caixes abans de carregar-les.^[11][5][1]
2. To tie (someone or something) to a fixed point: Va lligar la barca al moll.^[11][5]
3. To tie up, to wrap round with a cord so as to hold fast.^[11][4]
4. To bind (books).^[4][3]
5. (figurative) To bind, to restrict someone's freedom to act.^[4][9]
6. To link, to join (things) into a whole.^[4][1]
7. (cooking) To bind (a sauce or dough).^[4]
8. (dated) To bewitch, to prevent someone by magic from acting.^[4][3]

Word family

• deslligar
• deslligament
• deslligable
• indeslligable
• entrelligar
• relligar
• lliga
• lligam
• lligament
• lligadura
• lligat
• lligada
• lligabosc

Related words

• Latin ligō
• Occitan liar

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 5, 206
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. lligar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. lligar
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. lligar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5024
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. lligar
9. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. lligar
10. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. lligar
11. ^ 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. lligar