lloc

Forms

lloc m (plural llocs)^[1] Old Catalan wrote loc (the Homilies d'Organyà), log and above all loch, the spelling Ausiàs March uses beside lloch.^[2][3][4][5] The DCVB records the pronunciations [ʎɔ́k] and [ʎɔ̞́k].^[6] In Ribagorça, near the Aragonese border, the word for a village is lugar; at Benasc lugà.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan loc, which is inherited from Latin locus (“place”).^{[2][6][7][8][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan lòc, Old Occitan loc, Italian luogo and Romanian loc.^[1][9][10] Spanish kept its ablative as the adverb Spanish luego “at once”.^[11][12] In late Latin ⟨illo loco⟩ often replaced classical ⟨ilico⟩ “on the spot”.^[2]

The older Latin form was stlocus.^[13][1] Wiktionary takes it back, with doubt, to Proto-Indo-European *stel- (“to put, place”); de Vaan finds that derivation morphologically unconvincing and leaves the origin open.^[1][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines, Bruguera and the GDLC date the first record to 1150, in a grant of land at l'Espluga de Francolí: un ort ... in log avinent “a garden in a convenient place”.^[2][7][8] The Homilies d'Organyà use it of the Day of Judgement: en aquel loc seran totes coses acabades “at that point all things will be ended”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From early on the word was used for an inhabited place: a document of the Seu d'Urgell of 1244 speaks of tot lo capítol d’aquel log, and the DCVB has examples of “village” from 1283.^[2] In this sense, a village smaller than a town, it lived on in all periods, and is still used in Roussillon, Ribagorça and Valencia, though central Catalan has given it up.^[2] Roussillon place names such as El Cap del Lloc and El Fons del Lloc name the upper and lower ends of a village.^[2][6] The DCVB also gives the senses “farm with a farmhouse”, “passage in a book”, “office” and “occasion”.^[6]

Medieval phrases are recorded by Faraudo: donar lloc “to give occasion” (Eiximenis, 1381), fer lloc “to make room” (Roig, 1460), and en lloc de “instead of” (1401).^[15] In the Vides de sants rosselloneses loc also meant a coffin, perhaps a calque of Latin loculus.^[2] The Castilianism puesto, common in 19th-century central Catalan, has been successfully resisted since about 1910.^[2]

Timeline

• 1150 – in log avinent in a land grant at l'Espluga de Francolí.^[2][8]
• 1175–1224 – loc in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[2][3]
• 1244 – aquel log for a settlement, in a document of the Seu d'Urgell.^[2]
• 1248 – loch in a charter of franchises.^[5]
• 1381 – Eiximenis: dar loch “to give occasion”.^[15]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig's Spill: tot li fa lloch.^[15]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary defines the word as a determined portion of space.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place, a particular portion of space: un lloc tranquil per descansar.^[17][8][1]
2. room, available space: No queda lloc al cotxe.^[18][17]
3. The place assigned to someone or something: Torna cada llibre al seu lloc.^[8][18]
4. A position in a series or ranking: Va quedar en tercer lloc.^[18]
5. A post or office that someone holds.^[6][19]
6. An occasion or opportunity: donar lloc a “to give rise to”.^[6][15]
7. (dialectal) A small village, smaller than a vila.^[6][2][1]
8. A farm with a farmhouse.^[6]
9. A passage in a book.^[6]
10. (geometry) lloc geomètric: a locus.^[17]

Word family

• enlloc

Related words

• llogar
• llogaret
• lloguer
• local
• lòcul
• colgar
• Latin locus
• Occitan lòc

Usage notes

En lloc de “instead of” and tenir lloc “to take place” are common phrases.^[1][15]

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, 234
3. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. loc
4. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. log
5. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. loch
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. lloc
7. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 547
8. ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. lloc
9. ^ Alibert, Louis (1966), Dictionnaire occitan-français selon les parlers languedociens, Toulouse: Institut d'Études Occitanes, p. s.v. lòc
10. ^ Raynouard, François-Just-Marie (1838–1844), Lexique roman, ou dictionnaire de la langue des troubadours, 6 vols., Paris: Silvestre, p. 6, 29
11. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. luego
12. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. luego
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. locus
14. ^ 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. locus
15. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. lloc
16. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. lloc
17. ^ 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. lloc
18. ^ a b c Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. lloc
19. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. lloc