mas

Forms

mas m (plural masos)^[1] Old Catalan had the plural mases beside masos.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan mas, which is inherited from Late Latin mānsum (“place of stay, dwelling”).^[2][1] The GDLC gives the Medieval Latin mansus (“place of residence”).^[4]

The Latin noun is not classical, although the participle and supine of maneō (“to remain, stay”) were old, and in the late period the verb was used for “to dwell”.^[2][4] Coromines notes that ⟨mansum⟩ appears once in Claudianus Mamertus (died 474) for the dwelling of bees, and later ⟨mansus⟩ for a farmstead or a monastery's land in Medieval Latin texts.^[2] The OLD has a noun mansus (“lodging”) in an inscription of Pompeii.^[5]

As an inherited word it survives only in Catalan and in Occitan mas, where it is recorded from the beginnings.^[2][6] It also lived on in northern France, where an old text has Old French mes “house”, and in northern Italy, in the Trentino ⟨mas⟩ and the Valsugana ⟨maso⟩.^[2][7] In the Iberian Peninsula it is only Catalan; the form reached eastern and northern Aragon, and the Aragonese derivatives of it are borrowings from Catalan.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Latin document of 1055 with remaneat in ipsum mas de Alass, referring to the village of Alàs between the Urgellet and the Baridà.^[2][4] In 1066 a document of the cartulary of Sant Cugat mentions casks qui est in ipso mas quod ipse tenet.^[2] From the start it means a rural building for living in and farming.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Undated 12th-century documents from the Urgell area complain of raids on dos mases a Vilalta and on lo mas de la Muntada.^[2] Under the feudal system the mas was a holding: the GDLC records the mas dependent on an allodial house or lord in the 13th to 15th centuries, and the free mas, exempt from dues.^[4] The Constitutions of Catalonia of 1225 list castles, towns, masos and houses under the king's peace, and Muntaner names the men of the towns and the mases.^[3] A document of 1462 speaks of peasants who had to go far from their mas to dig furrows.^[2]

Labèrnia defines it as a country house with the estate and everything needed for those who work it, with the phrase sembla un mas robat for a house without furniture.^[8] In the Valencian dictionaries it is a farmhouse with land, tools and livestock.^[9] The DCVB also records small huts in dryland fields for shelter from sun and rain, and country houses for leisure with little or no land.^[10] It is a common surname.^[10][1]

Timeline

• 1055 – ipsum mas de Alass in a Latin document.^[2][4]
• 1066 – ipso mas in a document of the cartulary of Sant Cugat.^[2][11]
• 12th century – dos mases a Vilalta and lo mas de la Muntada in Catalan lists of grievances.^[2]
• 1225 – masos in the Constitutions of Catalonia under Jaume I.^[3]
• 1325 – Muntaner's chronicle names the homens de viles e de mases.^[3]
• 1460 – the Tirant lo Blanc lists lochs, masos o alqueries.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary records sembla un mas robat.^[8]
• 1932 – Fabra defines it as a country house.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A farmhouse: farmhouse, farmstead: Passarem l'estiu al mas dels avis.^[13][1]
2. A traditional farm unit made up of the house, its fields, stables and stores; a masia.^[13][4]
3. (history) A holding dependent on an allodial lord in the 13th to 15th centuries, and the mas franc, one free of dues.^[4]
4. (dialectal) A small hut in dryland fields, far from the village, for shelter from sun or rain.^[10]

Word family

• masia
• masada

Related words

• romandre
• Latin maneō
• Occitan mas

Usage notes

The DCVB has three other articles mas.^[10] One is the old adverb and conjunction, which it treats under més, from Latin magis:^[14] in the medieval language mas was the usual “but” (Llull, the Curial, the Tirant) and also meant “more” and “only”.^[3][15] Another refers to maç, a bundle, as in Labèrnia's mas de fil; the last is a written contraction of m'has.^[10][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 7, 412
3. ^ 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. mas
4. ^ 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. mas
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Alibert, Louis (1966), Dictionnaire occitan-français selon les parlers languedociens, Toulouse: Institut d'Études Occitanes, p. s.v. mas
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5322
8. ^ a b c Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. mas
9. ^ Martí Gadea, Joaquim (1891), Novísimo diccionario general valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. mas
10. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. mas
11. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. mas
12. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. mas
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. mas
14. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. més
15. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. mas