magre

Forms

magre (feminine magra, masculine and feminine plural magres)^[1] The final vowel is [ə] in Central, Balearic and Northern Catalan and [e] in North-Western and Valencian.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin macer (“thin, lean”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan magre, French maigre, Italian magro, Spanish magro, Portuguese magro and Romanian macru.^[6]

De Vaan traces ⟨macer⟩ to Proto-Italic *makros (“long, lean”) and Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱ-ro- (“long”).^[7][1] Its cognates are μακρός (makrós, “long”) and mæġer.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest record Faraudo quotes is Llull's Llibre de contemplació (1272), where seed does not multiply as well en la terra magra com en la grassa “in poor soil as in rich”.^[9] Coromines quotes the Blanquerna: vós sots veyll e magre “you are old and thin”, and magres viandes, poor fare.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Coromines finds the word in every period and region of the language, stronger than prim and more physical than flac;^[3] Onofre Pou's Thesaurus puerilis already glosses it with Latin gracilis and macer.^[3] Medieval texts use it for people and animals, poor soil and lean meat.^[9][10]

In the 19th century it also meant cold or graceless (of a speech) and meagre (of a meal).^[11] The Valencian dictionaries use it as a noun for lean meat and a slice of ham.^[12][13] The feminine noun magra “slice of ham” belongs mainly to the Pyrenean west of Catalonia and continues through the Upper Aragonese valleys as far as the Basque border.^[3] In the Matarranya magre is used as a noun for sliced cured ham.^[14]

Of the derivatives, amagrir is recorded in the 13th century (Vides de sants), magresa in Llull and magrícia in the 20th century (Ruyra).^[4]

Timeline

• 1272 – Llull's Llibre de contemplació: la terra magra.^[9]
• late 13th century – Llull's Blanquerna: vós sots veyll e magre.^[3]
• 1274–1283 – Llull's Començaments de medicina.^[15]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc: magre, descolorit.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia: thin and dry; meat without fat; poor soil.^[11]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of a person or a part of the body: having little fat; thin, lean.^[5][16][2]
2. Of food: without fat or meat;^[5][16] carn magra, lean meat, especially pork.^[5][16]
3. (religion) fer magre: to abstain from meat.^[5]
4. (figurative) Of little substance; poor, meagre, insufficient: un sou magre.^[5][16][2]
5. passar-la magra: to go through hard times.^[5]

Word family

• amagrir
• amagriment
• magrejar
• magresa
• magrícia
• magror
• remagrit

Related words

• demacrat
• emaciació
• Latin macer
• Spanish magro

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. magre
3. ^ a b c d e f 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, 371
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 563
5. ^ a b c d e f g Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. magre
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. magre
10. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. magre
11. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. magre
12. ^ Escrig, José (1851), Diccionario valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. magre
13. ^ Martí Gadea, Joaquim (1891), Novísimo diccionario general valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. magre
14. ^ Blanc Grau, Miquel (1994), Garba: mil paraules de Calaceit, Barcelona: Columna, p. s.v. magre
15. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. magre
16. ^ a b c d Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. magre