nombre

Forms

nombre m (plural nombres)^[1] The DCVB records /nómbɾə/ in the east and /nómbɾe/ in the west and Valencia.^[2]

Etymology

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

The same Latin word is Romanian număr, Italian novero, French nombre and Old Occitan nombre.^[6] Spanish número and Portuguese número are learned.^[6][7] Catalan has the learned doublet número too, recorded from 1481.^[4]

De Vaan reconstructs a Proto-Italic noun and connects it with *nem- (“to assign, allot”), as does Wiktionary; the OLD calls the link with νέμω (némō, “to distribute”) probable.^[8][1][9] The grammatical sense is a semantic loan in Latin from ἀριθμός (arithmós).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCVB's first record is the Costums de Tortosa of 1272, which rule that if the judges are three, or an odd number (de nombre no par), the majority decides.^[2][3] In the same years Llull uses it for quantity and for number in logic.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

In the Middle Ages nombre was used for every sense: quantity, as in Llull and the Tirant lo Blanc;^[3] sens nombre "countless" in Muntaner;^[3] nombre par and nombre senar for even and odd numbers in Llull; and ésser del nombre de "to belong to the group of" in Bernat Metge and Ausiàs March.^[3] Faraudo records en nombre "in large numbers" from 1430.^[11]

In the 16th century nombre began to give way to número, a recent learned borrowing from Latin: the 1507 Nebrija adaptation has only número, and the 17th-century dictionaries give only that word.^[3] Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà (1803–1805) and Labèrnia (1839) mark nombre as old.^[3][12]

Coromines found the word fully alive only in Menorca, in Mallorca for numbers of livestock and property, in Northern Catalonia, Andorra and some places of the north-east, and as a term of the textile trade for the count of threads.^[3] Pal·las (1927) and Fabra (1932) define it again as the standard word,.^[13][14]

Timeline

• 1272 – the Costums de Tortosa speak of nombre no par, an odd number.^[2][3]
• 1250–1299 – nombre in the Catalan Diàlegs of Saint Gregory.^[15]
• 1430 – en nombre, "in large numbers", in an inventory.^[11]
• 1507 – the Catalan adaptation of Nebrija's dictionary has only número.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia marks the word as old.^[12]
• 1932 – Fabra defines it as the result of counting.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (mathematics) A number, the result of counting a set, and the abstract entity that generalises it: nombre parell, nombre primer.^[16][5]
2. (physics, chemistry) A number that characterises an atom or a quantity, as in nombre atòmic.^[16]
3. quantity, the number of people or things: Hi havia un bon nombre de persones a la plaça.^[16][1]
4. (grammar) The category that marks singular and plural.^[16][2]
5. (rhetoric) The rhythm of a sentence that gives harmony to speech.^[16][2]

Word family

• nombrar
• desnombrar
• innombrable
• nombrós
• nombrosament

Related words

• número
• numeral
• enumerar
• Latin numerus
• Occitan nombre

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 Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. nombre
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 956
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 637
5. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. nombre
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5994
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. numerus
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. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. nombre
11. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. nombre
12. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. nombre
13. ^ Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. nombre
14. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. nombre
15. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. nombre
16. ^ a b c d e 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. nombre