ou

Forms

ou m (plural ous)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ōvum (“egg”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} All the Romance languages point to a popular form with an open vowel, *ŏvum, and the Catalan word too has open /ɔ/.^[2][1]

The same Latin word is Occitan uòu, French œuf, Spanish huevo, Portuguese ovo, Italian uovo and Romanian ou.^[6][1][7]

The Latin word goes back, with Ancient Greek ᾠόν (ōión, “egg”), to Proto-Indo-European *h₂ōwyóm (“egg”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines places the first records at the origins of the written language, in Desclot and Llull.^[2] Llull uses the word for the eggs of birds and asks, in the Arbre de filosofia desiderat, which came first, the hen or the egg: Qual fo enans, o la galina o l'ou?^[9]

Semantic evolution

Coromines dates several uses of the word: ous ferrats “fried eggs” in 1565, ou estantís “stale egg” in 1655, ous menats “scrambled eggs” in 1718, and the sense “testicle” in a poem of the end of the 15th century.^[2] The Curial e Güelfa (1440) has the saying about those who look for a hair in an egg, that is, for a pretext.^[2][10] Lacavalleria recorded fer l'ou “to lay” in 1696.^[2]

The name was given to egg-shaped things: an apothecary's jar called ou filosòfic (1785) and the young mushroom ou de reig (Caesar's mushroom).^[2] Bruguera dates the derivatives ouera (15th century), oval (1696) and ouater (1718); learned words of the same Latin root, such as ovari (1839), came later.^[4] The DIEC2 now puts first the biological sense, the cell from which a new organism develops.^[11]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, in Desclot and Llull.^[2][9]
• 1440 – the Curial e Güelfa: cercar pèl en l'ou.^[10]
• Late 15th century – the sense “testicle”, in a poem.^[2]
• 1565 – ous ferrats “fried eggs”.^[2]
• 1696 – fer l'ou “to lay an egg”, in Lacavalleria's dictionary.^[2]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary lists the noun and the interjection.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An egg laid by a bird, the embryo with its nutritive fluids in a hard shell: La gallina ha post tres ous avui.^[11][5][1]
2. The similar product of other animals, such as reptiles, fish and insects.^[11][3]
3. An egg, especially a hen's egg, as food: Per sopar es va fer dos ous ferrats.^[11][5]
4. (biology) The fertilised cell from which a new organism develops, a zygote; also the ovum.^[11][5]
5. (colloquial) A testicle.^[5][1]
6. Any object shaped like an egg.^[5][3]

Word family

• ouaire
• ouat
• ouataire
• ouater
• ouera
• oval
• ovalat
• desovar

Related words

• òvul
• ovari
• ovat
• Latin ōvum
• Spanish huevo
• French œuf

Usage notes

In Mallorca and Menorca ou! is also an interjection used to stop an animal, “whoa!”; elsewhere it served to call someone, and repeated it lulls babies to sleep.^{[13][1][3][5]} Escrig's Valencian dictionary of 1851 lists ou as “hear!”, a form of the verb oir.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 6, 142
3. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. ou
4. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 664
5. ^ a b c d e f g Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. ou
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. ovum
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 Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. ou
10. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. ou
11. ^ 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. ou
12. ^ Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. ou
13. ^ Figuera, Pere Antoni (1840), Diccionari mallorquí-castellà, Palma de Mallorca, p. s.v. ou
14. ^ Escrig, José (1851), Diccionario valenciano-castellano, Valencia, p. s.v. ou