llit

Forms

llit m (plural llits)^[1] Old Catalan usually wrote lit, as Llull, Desclot and Joanot Martorell do; the NGGL treats llit as a variant of it in Llull's works.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan lit, inherited from Latin lectus (“bed, couch”).^[2][5][6][1]

The same Latin word is Occitan lèit, French lit, Spanish lecho, Italian letto and Portuguese leito.^[7][1] The REW notes that Catalan, like Sardinian, Asturian and Portuguese, also uses it for the bed of a cart.^[7]

The Latin noun goes back to *lekto- (“bed”) or a stem in ⟨u⟩, from *legʰ- (“to lie”), the root of Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos, “bed”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines and the GDLC date the word to 992, when a bequest in an almost Catalan form appears in a document that Balari read in the Liber Antiquitatum of Barcelona cathedral.^[2][6] In Llull's Medicina de pecat the infant Christ lies naked with poc lit, little bedding, and in Desclot's chronicle a queen asks to be put in her husband's bed, e·l seu lit.^[2] The vernacular texts CICA holds begin with the court book of Cocentaina of 1294–1295.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The medieval language used the word for marriage itself: Llull in 1272 warns of false love en son llit, and the Curial e Güelfa has Hippolytus refuse to defile lo llit paternal.^[4] Set phrases were already current: fer lo lit “make the bed” in Metge (1381) and the Tirant, caure en lo lit “fall ill”, and in Roig's Spill (1460) partir llit “sleep apart”, said of husband and wife, and sullar el llit “commit adultery”.^[4] In the Tirant a llit de camp is a bridal bed;^[2] Pou glossed the phrase with Latin thalamus.^[2]

The dictionaries add the transferred senses: Labèrnia (1839) gives the membrane round the foetus and the floor of a cart, and later dictionaries the bed of a river and a layer of stone or other material.^[10][5][6] Among the derivatives, llitera “litter” passed into Spanish as litera, recorded there from 1600.^[11] Old Catalan also had llitiga “litter”, from Latin lectica, in a document of 1097.^[2]

Timeline

• 992 – a bequest in an almost Catalan form in a Barcelona document.^[2][6]
• 1272 – Llull, in the Consili, uses llit for the marriage bed.^[4]
• 1294–1295 – llit in the court book of Cocentaina.^[9]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge: far lo lit.^[4]
• 1460 – Roig's Spill: partixcam llit.^[4]
• 1493 – an inventory lists llit gran encaxat with its mattresses.^[12]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary lists the bed of a cart and the placenta among the senses.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bed, the piece of furniture for lying and sleeping on: Avui me n'aniré d'hora al llit.^[13][6]
2. The frame of a bed, without the bedding.^[6]
3. Anything one lies on, a makeshift bed: un llit de fulles seques.^[6][5]
4. The bed of a river or stream, a riverbed; the floor of the sea.^[5][1]
5. A layer of straw, sand or another material spread evenly.^[6][5]
6. The floor of a cart.^[6][5]
7. (anatomy) The placenta.^[5][10]

Word family

• llitera
• llitar
• allitar
• desallitar
• sobrellit
• llitelló

Related words

• Latin lectus
• Occitan lèit
• Spanish lecho
• French lit

Usage notes

Common phrases are anar-se'n al llit “to go to bed”, fer llit “to be bedridden”, llit de monja “a single bed” and fer llit a part, said of a married couple who sleep apart.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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, 224
3. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. llit
4. ^ 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. llit
5. ^ a b c d e f g Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. llit
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. llit
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4965
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 Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. llit
10. ^ a b c Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. llit
11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lecho
12. ^ Gual Camarena, Miguel, Vocabulario del comercio medieval, online edition, Universidad de Murcia, https://www.um.es/lexico-comercio-medieval, p. s.v. llit
13. ^ 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. llit