os

os¹ bone

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈo̞s]^[2]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈɔs]^[2]

Forms

os m (plural ossos)^[2] Medieval texts have the plurals osses (Llull, Muntaner) and ossos (the Spill).^[5][6] Old Catalan also used ossa, from the Latin neuter plural, for a set of bones or a person's remains.^[7][5]

Etymology

The word for the bone is inherited from Old Catalan os, which is inherited from Latin ossum (“bone”), a form recorded from Accius on beside classical os (genitive ⟨ossis⟩).^{[5][8][7][9][2]}

The same Latin word is Spanish hueso, French os, Italian osso, Portuguese osso and Romanian os.^[10] The collective ossa continues the Latin neuter plural.^[7]

De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic ⟨ost⟩, genitive ⟨ostos⟩, and *h₃o/est- (“bone”), the source also of ὀστέον (ostéon) and of the Hittite and Sanskrit words for bone.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's earliest record of the word is in the Usatges de Barcelona, in the first half of the 13th century.^[11] Llull writes in the Llibre de contemplació that the bone is formed within the flesh, and speaks of the marrow nourished in the bones.^[6][12] From the start it meant the hard pieces of the skeleton.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Medieval texts also use os for the stone of a fruit, as the medical Tròtula does for dates and olives, and for worked bone used in place of ivory: an inventory of Alfonso the Magnanimous of 1413 lists chessmen of bone.^[12] The Spill has haver gran os a roure “to have a big bone to gnaw”, a great difficulty.^[5]

Ossos for a person's mortal remains appears in the early 17th century, where older texts mostly said ossa; the oath pels ossos de mon pare is already in the Tirant.^[5] Other phrases followed: os de sípia “cuttlebone” in 1523, os de peix “fishbone” in 1524, os bertran “sacrum” in Labèrnia (1839).^[5] The DCVB and the GDLC record figurative senses: a difficult thing or person, and laziness.^[8][1]

Among the derivatives, ossera is recorded in 1415, ossam in the 15th century, desossar in 1472, osset and ossut in 1696 and ossada about 1900, in Verdaguer.^[7][5]

Timeline

• 1200–1249 – earliest record in CICA, in the Usatges de Barcelona.^[11]
• 1272 – Llull's Llibre de contemplació describes the bone as a natural form.^[12]
• 13th century – ossa “set of bones” in Cerverí.^[7]
• 1413 – an inventory of Alfonso the Magnanimous lists chessmen de os.^[12]
• 1415 – first record of ossera.^[7]
• 1472 – Joan Esteve has desossar, to take the bones out of meat.^[5]
• 1524 – os de peix, a fishbone, in a text quoted by Aguiló.^[5]
• 1696 – Lacavalleria records osset and ossut.^[5][7]
• 1839 – Labèrnia records os bertran and os ballador.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. bone: each of the hard pieces of the skeleton of vertebrates, made of dense connective tissue impregnated with calcium phosphate: Es va trencar un os del peu.^[14][8]
2. Bone as a material for making objects: un mànec d'os.^[8][1]
3. (plural) A person's mortal remains.^[1][8]
4. The hard part of certain animals.^[1][8]
5. The stone of an olive or other fruit; a pinyol.^[1][8]
6. (figurative) A thing or person that is hard to deal with or to overcome.^[8]
7. (figurative) Laziness, reluctance to work.^[1][8]

Word family

• desossar
• ossada
• ossam
• ossaments
• ossat
• ossera
• osset
• ossós
• ossut
• renòs

os² bear

Etymology tree of os²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin ursus

Catalan os

French ours

Italian orso

Romanian urs

Spanish oso

From the same root · os²

Latin ursa ← ursus

Pronunciation

• Northern: [ˈus]^[2]
• Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia: [ˈos]^[2]

Forms

os m (plural ossos, feminine ossa, feminine plural osses)^[2] Fabra and the DIEC2 write the bear ós, plural óssos.^[3][4] Wiktionary gives ós as an alternative spelling.^[2] Old Catalan had ós (in Llull's Llibre de meravelles), ors, which Llull seems to have preferred as more literary, and onso, feminine onsa, frequent in Valencian texts.^[15] Today ós is said in Barcelona and most of Catalonia, in the Pallars and in much of Valencia;^[15] onso in Mallorca, Menorca, Tortosa and the south of the province of Lleida;^[15] orso in parts of Valencia (the Horta, the Ribera del Xúquer, Alcoi, Carlet); and urs in Roussillon.^[15] In some places the feminine óssa is the generic name, used even of the male.^[15]

Etymology

The word for the bear is inherited from Latin ursus (“bear”).^{[15][16][7][1][2]}

The same Latin word is French ours, Occitan ors, Spanish oso, Italian orso and Romanian urs.^[17][2] Coromines takes the medieval ors for a half-learned or Occitanising form, and the Roussillon ⟨urs⟩ for an Occitanism.^[15]

The Old Catalan variant onso has an unexpected /n/, like Aragonese onso.^[15][18] Coromines explains the Aragonese form by the spread of the nasal of the indefinite article in ⟨un oso⟩, the bear being a solitary animal spoken of mostly as “a bear”, and takes the Catalan one for a Mozarabic or Aragonese loan, given its early Valencian records.^[15][18]

Latin ⟨ursus⟩ goes back to *orsos and *h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”), the source also of ἄρκτος (árktos) and art.^[9][2] According to de Vaan the Latin cluster -rs- continues the PIE *-rtḱ-, and the initial vowel, where ⟨ar-⟩ would be expected, points to some kind of taboo distortion of the name.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's earliest record is ors in the Catalan Diàlegs of St Gregory, of the second half of the 13th century (in a copy of 1340).^[19] In Llull's Llibre de meravelles (1288–1289) the bear, with the leopard, admits that even they, who are stronger, are afraid of a voice they hear.^[20][15] The word meant the animal.^[15]

Semantic evolution

Llull uses ors many times in the Llibre de meravelles and the Blaquerna; it is also in the Costums de Tortosa, the Tresor de pobres and Vicent Ferrer's sermons, beside onso.^[15] A document of 1444 from Barcelona has both forms together, lo ós o onso.^[15] The feminine óssa is recorded from the 14th century, and the constellations Óssa Major and Óssa Menor from Lacavalleria (1696), who writes onsa.^[15]

The dictionaries after 1500 give ós or onso;^[15] Labèrnia (1839) takes ós as the normal form and records ós blanc, the polar bear.^[15] Fabra's dictionary of 1932 adds ós formiguer, the anteater, and the phrase viure com un ós, to live apart from other people.^[3]

Timeline

• 1250–1299 – ors in the Catalan Diàlegs of St Gregory (copy of 1340), the earliest record in CICA.^[19]
• 1288–1289 – Llull's Llibre de meravelles has lo Ós among the animals of its fables.^[20][15]
• 1328 – honsos in the Privileges of Catí, in the Maestrat.^[15]
• 1370 – Peter the Ceremonious, at the Corts of Tarragona, recalls David defending his father's flock from the lion and the ors.^[21]
• 1444 – a Barcelona document writes lo ós o onso.^[15]
• 1696 – Lacavalleria records the constellations, as onsa.^[15]
• 1839 – Labèrnia treats ós as the normal form.^[15]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general records ós formiguer.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. bear: a large, heavily built carnivorous plantigrade mammal of the family Ursidae, with thick fur and a very short tail: Als Pirineus encara hi viuen alguns ossos.^[4][1]
2. os bru, the brown bear (Ursus arctos); os blanc or os polar, the polar bear (Ursus maritimus).^[4]
3. os formiguer, the giant anteater, a xenarthran of America.^[4][3]