ona

Forms

ona f (plural ones)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin unda (“wave; flowing water”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan onda, Spanish onda, Portuguese onda, Italian onda, French onde and Romanian undă.^[1][6] Beside the inherited word, the medieval literary language used onda, with a learned treatment that is the normal one in Occitan;^[1] Wiktionary calls it a semi-learned doublet.^[2][1]

The Latin word belongs with the Indo-European word for water.^[7][1] De Vaan reconstructs a stem with /n/ in its oblique cases, whose cognates include Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr, “water”).^[7] Wiktionary explains the Latin nasal as a collective form of *wódr̥ (“water”) with metathesis of the consonants.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Llull already uses the word in the Llibre de contemplació, of a ship tossed de ones e de vents “by waves and winds”.^[8] Coromines dates the word to 1330, from a Roussillon document cited by Alart with the phrase ni de ones d'aygües, in which the ones are floods of the river Têt.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Alart found the sense “flood” in Roussillon documents down to 1424.^[2] Coromines notes that the word is rare in medieval authors, who preferred onda; the DCVB quotes ones from Genebreda at the end of the 15th century, and the chronicle of Jaume I has the derivative onada.^[2] Miquel Peres used it figuratively, of the “waves” of fantasies that distract the mind in prayer.^[9]

The dictionaries recorded the word steadily;^[10] Lacavalleria has the adverbial phrase en ones “in waves”.^[2] Labèrnia added in 1839 the motion of corn in the wind and the shimmer of light.^[2][10] Martí Gadea applied it in 1891 to the curls of hair and the curves of a crawling snake.^[11] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 has, besides the wave of water, the wave of physics, the band of vibrating particles in an elastic medium.^[12] The DIEC2 defines the physical sense by wavelength, frequency and amplitude and adds the radio waves.^[13]

Derivatives: onada (14th century in Bruguera), onejar “to wave” (1653) and onatge “swell” (20th century).^[4]

Timeline

• 13th century – Ramon Llull, Llibre de contemplació: de ones e de vents.^[8]
• 1330 – ones “floods” in a Roussillon document.^[2]
• 1410–1415 – ona in the sermons of Vicent Ferrer.^[14]
• 1481 – Lluís de Fenollet's Història d'Alexandre has the sea throwing its ones far off.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary adds the figurative senses.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary adds the sense of physics.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wave of the sea or of a lake, the rising and falling of the water: Les ones trencaven contra el moll.^[13][5][1]
2. (physics) A periodic disturbance that travels through space or a medium, described by its wavelength, frequency and amplitude: El so viatja en forma d'ona.^[13][5]
3. (radio) A radio wave of a given band, as in ona curta “short wave”.^[13]
4. Something that comes in surges, like a wave of water.^[3]
5. A wavy line or shape, a curve.^[3]

Word family

• onada
• onatge
• onejar
• oneig
• microona

Related words

• onda
• abundar
• Latin unda

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. 6, 71
3. ^ a b c Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. ona
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 654
5. ^ a b c Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. ona
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. unda
7. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. ona
9. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. ona
10. ^ a b c Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. ona
11. ^ Martí Gadea, Joaquim (1891), Novísimo diccionario general valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. ona
12. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. ona
13. ^ a b c d 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. ona
14. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. ona