mes

mes¹ month

Etymology tree of mes¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin mēnsis

Catalan mes

French mois

Italian mese

Spanish mes

From the same root · mes¹

Latin mēnstruus ← mēnsis

Latin sēmēstris ← mēnsis

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈme̞s]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈmes]^[1]

Forms

mes m (plural mesos)^[1] The old plural was meses, general in the 13th and 14th centuries and still found in the 15th, although mesos prevails from about 1400; the Tirant lo Blanc has both, quatre meses in the knightly style and tres mesos in the familiar one.^[2] Coromines corrects the DCVB on the vowel: western Catalan has a regular closed /e/, Roussillon does not distinguish the two vowels, and the closed /e/ of Barcelona, the surrounding districts and the Balearic Islands is anomalous, while the regular open /ɛ/ is usual in the diocese of Girona, much of that of Vic and the Conca de Barberà.^[2]

Etymology

The word for the month is inherited from Old Catalan mes, which is inherited from Latin mēnsis (“month”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Coromines gives the Vulgar Latin form ⟨mēse⟩ as its immediate source.^[2]

The same Latin word is Occitan mes, Spanish mes, Portuguese mês, French mois and Italian mese.^[1][6]

The Latin noun continues *mēns- (“month, moon”), from *meh₁-n-s-.^[7] Wiktionary writes the Indo-European word *mḗh₁n̥s (“moon, month”) and connects it, probably, with *meh₁- (“to measure”), the phases of the moon being a measure of time; its cognates include Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn) and English month.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines places the word at the origins of the language: it is in Llull and in many other texts and documents of the 13th century.^[2] Llull uses it for the months of the calendar, closing the Arbre de filosofia d'amor, finished near Paris in 1298, en lo mes de oytubre “in the month of October”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Beside the calendar month, the DCVB records the lunar month, the period of menstruation and a month's wages.^[3] Amengual's Mallorcan dictionary of 1858 and Martí Gadea's Valencian one of 1891 already list the menstrual sense, and Martí Gadea also the monthly wage of servants.^[9][10]

The derivative mesada is recorded from 1391; the learned words of the Latin family came later, mensual and menstru in a dictionary of 1803, while in 1647 the menses were still called la mesada.^[2][4] The compound tremesó was already a name of a wheat in a document of Ribes of 1380, froment tremesor, and setmesó is in a dictionary of 1647.^[2]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 defines the word as one of the twelve parts of the year and as the span from one day to the same date of the next month.^[11] The DIEC2 adds set phrases such as el mes que corre “the current month” and l'altre mes “last month”.^[12]

Timeline

• 1298 – Llull finishes the Arbre de filosofia d'amor en lo mes de oytubre.^[8]
• 1309 – a document speaks of mig mes de ffebrer and lo mes d'ahost.^[2]
• 1380 – froment tremesor in a document of Ribes.^[2]
• 1391 – first record of the derivative mesada.^[2][4]
• c. 1400 – the plural mesos begins to prevail over meses.^[2]
• 1647 – setmesó is in a dictionary.^[2]
• 1839–1840 – Labèrnia defines the month as one of the twelve parts of the year and quotes the rhyme of the thirty-day months.^[13]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. month, one of the twelve parts of the year: Cobra el lloguer el primer de cada mes.^[12][5][1]
2. A period running from one day to the same date of the following month: Torna d'aquí a tres mesos.^[12][3]
3. A month's pay, the same as mesada.^[12][3]
4. (astronomy) mes lunar: the lunar month, the time between two like phases of the moon.^[12][5]
5. Menstruation.^[3]

Word family

• mesada
• mesader
• setmesó

mes² but

Etymology tree of mes²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin magis

Catalan mes

French mais

Italian ma

Aromanian ma

Italian mai

Spanish más

From the same root · mes²

Latin magister ← magis

Latin mālō ← magis

French désormais ← mais

Aromanian macã ← ma

Italian giammai ← mai

Italian ormai ← mai

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈme̞s]^[1]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈmes]^[1]

Forms

mes^[1] Old Catalan wrote mas almost everywhere, in Llull, the Consolat de mar, Roig and Martorell;^[14] mes was a minority form from the beginning, commoner in some northern areas.^[14] The DCVB gives mas and mays as the old forms.^[15]

Etymology

The word for “but” is inherited from Old Catalan mas, which is inherited from Latin magis (“more”).^[14][15][1] Etymologically it is the same word as the adverb of quantity més.^[14]

Coromines traces the adversative sense to Vulgar Latin, where two uses met: the Latin word was often used for “what is more”, adding to what had been said, and even the classical poets, Propertius, Virgil and Catullus, used it as “rather, or better”.^[14] The adversative use was mostly unstressed, so that Romance *mages tended to ⟨mas⟩ when proclitic and, through ⟨maes⟩, to ⟨mais⟩ when stressed; from this came the distinction between “but” and “more” that prevailed in Old Occitan, Old Catalan and modern Portuguese.^[14]

The same development is found across the western Romance languages: Italian ma, French mais, Spanish mas and Portuguese mas.^[14][16] The troubadours mostly kept Old Occitan mais “more” apart from mas “but”, though not always.^[14]

The Latin adverb continues *magis, from *m̥ǵh₂-is, a form of *méǵh₂yōs.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Homilies d'Organyà already have mas as an adversative conjunction: totes les coses del segle tornen en nient, mas caritad jamés no cadrà “all the things of the world come to nothing, but charity will never fall”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

Throughout the Middle Ages mas was the usual form; a few texts prefer mes, such as the Curial, the Vides de sants and many documents of the same area, and a chronicle of the end of the Count of Urgell written near Balaguer.^[14] After 1500 mes gained ground everywhere, but by then però had weakened its old adversative force and become almost the only “but” of the spoken language; reduced to a literary word, mes and mas were mixed, and the minority form won, helped by the Spanish and French models.^[14]

The DCVB records the senses “but”, “but rather” and “except, other than”.^[15] Martí Gadea's Valencian dictionary of 1891 lists it as an adversative conjunction, and Fabra's of 1932 glosses it simply as però.^[10][11] The DEIEC says it is used in Northern Catalan and elsewhere only in a formal register.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – mas in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[14]
• 1297–1298 – documents with mes, like the Vides de sants.^[14]
• 1317 – Mes que si qualcú in a document of Roussillon.^[14]
• 1396 – two cases of mes in a document of the Segarra and the Conca de Barberà.^[14]
• after 1500 – mes gains ground over mas while però becomes the usual conjunction.^[14]
• 1932 – Fabra glosses mes as però.^[11]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. (Northern Catalan; elsewhere formal) but, the same as però: La feina és pesada, mes ben pagada.^[12][17]
2. (archaic) but rather, except, after a negation.^[15]