nau

Forms

nau f (plural naus)^[1] The DCVB records the same pronunciation, /naw/, in all the dialects.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan nau, which is inherited from Latin nāvis (“ship”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan nau, Old French nef, Italian nave, Spanish nave and Romanian naie.^[6][3] Spanish and Portuguese also borrowed the Catalan word: Spanish nao, now obsolete, is recorded from about 1260, and Portuguese nau took the place of the native word for a large ship.^[7][3]

The Latin noun continues Proto-Italic *naus; de Vaan traces it to Proto-Indo-European *neh₂-u- (“ship”), with cognates in Ancient Greek ναῦς (naûs) and Sanskrit नौ (nau).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCVB and DECat cite the Lleuda de Cotlliure of 1249, which charges tota nau ab gàbia “every ship with a top” five sous and five diners;^[9] Coromines takes the gàbia to be a small lookout platform shaped like a cage.^[3][2] From the first records the word names a ship in general.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the beginning nau was the general Catalan word for any ship or boat, as in Llull, the Costums de Tortosa and the Consolat de Mar, which often says nau o leny for a merchant vessel.^[3] From the 12th to the 17th century it also named one type of ship: a large sailing vessel of one to three decks, without oars, built for cargo or for war.^[3][10] The documents distinguish a nau tinclada or nau castellana of Castilian build, a nau encuirada covered with hides, and the naus de covent with two or three decks of Peter the Ceremonious's chronicle.^[3]

Medieval Latin already used navis for the nave of a church, and the Catalan word had that sense by 1323.^[9][10] In the court ordinances of Peter the Ceremonious and in royal inventories a nau is also a boat-shaped vessel of gold or silver: an incense boat, or a table piece.^[10] Later senses include an oil trough under the press in the Priorat, and in Menorca and Mallorca the prehistoric boat-shaped stone buildings also called navetes.^[3][2] The figurative ship, la nau del món, runs from the 15th century to Verdaguer.^[3]

The diminutive naveta is in the chronicle of Jaume I, and navada, the cargo a ship could carry, is recorded in 1336.^[3] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 adds nau aèria for an aircraft.^[11] The DIEC2 also gives the large single-storey building used by industry or for storage.^[12]

Timeline

• 1249 – the Lleuda de Cotlliure: tota nau ab gàbia.^[3][2]
• second half of the 13th century – nau in the Catalan Diàlegs of St Gregory, CICA's first text with the word.^[13]
• 1272 – the Costums de Tortosa.^[4][5]
• 1323 – the account of a voyage to the Holy Land describes a church de .iij. naus “with three naves”.^[10]
• 1325 – Muntaner's chronicle names the largest ship of a fleet, la Bonaventura.^[10]
• 1359 – a document describes a nau tinclada with a crew of sixty.^[3]
• 1416 – the inventory of Alfons the Magnanimous lists a gilt silver nau.^[10]
• 1839 – Labèrnia gives the ship and the nave of a church.^[14]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary defines the ship and the nave, with nau aèria.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ship or vessel: a craft built to float and move on water, carrying people or goods: La nau va salpar de Palma de matinada.^[12][5][1]
2. (figurative) A collective enterprise seen as a ship facing the risks of a voyage.^[12][2]
3. (history) A large sailing ship of the Middle Ages and later, usually three-masted, with a high hull and a forecastle.^[12][5]
4. nau aèria: an aircraft, an aeronau;^[1] nau espacial: a spacecraft.^[12][1]
5. (dialectal) A trough or basin, such as the one that collects the oil under a press.^[12][3]
6. (architecture) A nave or aisle: each space running along a church or other large building between walls or rows of arches.^[12][1]
7. A large single-storey building with a high roof, often prefabricated, used for industry or storage; an industrial shed.^[12][15][1]
8. (archaeology, Balearic Islands) A prehistoric megalithic building shaped like an upturned boat.^[2][3]

Word family

• naveta
• navada
• aeronau

Related words

• naval
• navili
• navegar
• Latin navis
• Spanish nave
• Occitan nau

Usage notes

The DCVB heads a separate masculine nau, a tanning pit, as a shortening of noc (the GDLC calls it a variant of that word), and a feminine nau “branch of a tree”.^[2][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. nau
3. ^ 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, 885
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 627
5. ^ 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. nau
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5863
7. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nave
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 Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ 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. nau
11. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. nau
12. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. nau
13. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. nau
14. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. nau
15. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. nau