peix

Forms

peix m (plural peixos)^[1] Old Catalan wrote peys and pex besides peix, all three from the Furs de València or Saint Gregory's Diàlegs in the second half of the 13th century.^[2][3][4] In Roussillon proper the word is pei, while Capcir has forms like peis and pes.^[5] The DCVB records the pronunciations [peʃ], [pejʃ] and [pej].^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin piscis (“fish”).^{[5][6][7][8][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan peis, Spanish pez, Portuguese peixe, Italian pesce and Romanian pește;^[5][1] French replaced it with the diminutive French poisson.^[9][5][1] Catalan had the diminutive too, as peixó: Balari found it in documents of 1158 and 1159, Llull uses it once for a rhyme, and it spread to Roussillon.^[5]

The Latin word continues *piski-; its cognates are Celtic and Germanic, as Old Irish íasc and Gothic 𐍆𐌹𐍃𐌺𐍃 (fisks).^[10] De Vaan finds the difference of vowel between the Italic and Germanic forms and the Celtic one hard to explain.^[10]

Coromines notes that this is one of the few words in which the /ĭ/ of Latin gave a close /e/ in every dialect, because of the sounds around it.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines gives the word as attested from the beginnings of the language, quoting Llull's Blanquerna, where God gives beasts, birds and pexes what they need to live.^[5] The earliest dated text in CICA is the Furs de València, of 1261–1271.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Catalan uses peix as a collective noun, hi ha molt de peix, as Italian and Romanian do, while French and Spanish use the plural;^[5] Coromines finds this in Llull, in Ausiàs March and in documents of 1310–1315, and in the living dialects from Menorca to the north of Roussillon.^[5] In the Middle Ages the word also meant fresh fish as food.^[11]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 still includes invertebrates living in water in the popular sense, beside the naturalists' sense of a vertebrate breathing through gills.^[12] Pal·las records a figurative sense, a shrewd, crafty man.^[13] The DCVB lists dialect senses such as the edible part of a snail, the male catkin of the hazel, a cut of meat and an inflamed lymph node.^[6]

Bruguera dates peixera to 1315 and pescateria to 1269.^[7]

Timeline

• 1158 – the diminutive peixó in a document published by Balari.^[5]
• 1261–1271 – peix and peys in the Furs de València.^[4][2]
• late 13th century – Llull's Fèlix speaks of fishermen catching all the fish of a pond.^[14]
• 1324 – pex in a cookery book.^[3]
• 1380 – a letter of the infante Joan orders loads of fresh fish brought to Hostalric.^[11]
• 1932 – Fabra gives both the popular and the scientific definition.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fish: a cold-blooded aquatic vertebrate that breathes through gills and has fins: Al riu hi ha peixos petits.^[15][8]
2. Any animal living only in water.^[15]
3. (collective) Fish as a whole, especially as caught and eaten: Avui per sopar hi ha peix.^[15][6]
4. (figurative) A shrewd, crafty person, in ésser un bon peix.^[15][13]
5. (in the plural, astronomy) The constellation and sign of Pisces.^[6]

Word family

• peixada
• peixalla
• peixater
• peixateria
• peixejar
• peixera

Related words

• pescar
• pesca
• pescador
• piscina
• Latin piscis
• Occitan peis
• Spanish pez

Usage notes

peix is also a form of the verb péixer "to feed", a different word.^[16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. peys
3. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. pex
4. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. peix
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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, 375
6. ^ a b c d e Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. peix
7. ^ a b Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 693
8. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. peix
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6532
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. peix
12. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. peix
13. ^ a b Vallès, Emili (1927), Pal·las: diccionari català il·lustrat, Barcelona: Salvat, p. s.v. peix
14. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. peix
15. ^ 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. peix
16. ^ 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, 378