pes

Forms

pes m (plural pesos)^[1] The DCVB records /pέs/, /pés/ and, in Mallorca, /pə́s/.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan pes, which is inherited from Latin pēnsum (“a weight of wool given to be spun”), the neuter of the past participle of pendō (“to weigh”).^{[3][2][4][1][5]}

Coromines thinks the word took the general sense "weight" already in Vulgar Latin, replacing classical pondus, since all the Romance forms come from it.^[3] Medieval Latin has it as "weight" and "tax".^[6] The Romance forms point to a Vulgar Latin form without /n/, which Wiktionary writes *pēsum.^[1] The same Latin word is French poids, whose ⟨d⟩ is a late spelling after the classical Latin word, Italian peso and Occitan pes.^[7][1][8] García de Diego, against Meyer-Lübke, derives Spanish peso from the verb pesar rather than from the Latin noun.^[9]

The verb pesar comes from pēnsō, the intensive of the same Latin verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

CICA's first record is a 12th-century text, the Greuges dels homes de Sant Pere de Graudescale.^[10] Coromines dates the word to the beginnings of the language and quotes Llull's Llibre del gentil, where God will make the weighing (lo pes) of good and evil on the Day of Judgement.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

In trade the phrase aver de pes, goods sold by weight, appears in a Roussillon document of 1284;^[3] Old French had avoir de pois, which survives in English as avoirdupois.^[3] Medieval pes also meant the scales and the weights used with them, the right weight of a coin, and importance, as in Eiximenis's advice not to believe coses de pes hastily (1381).^[12]

It also named the public weighhouse, often at a city gate, and the tax charged there: Barcelona had a Casa del Pes de la Farina by 1390 and a Pes dels Draps in 1436.^[3][12] The DIEC2 adds the physical sense, mass times the acceleration of gravity, and the sporting weights.^[13]

In Balearic speech pes is also a contraction of per and the article es, which has a separate origin.^[13]

Timeline

• 12th century – pes in the Greuges dels homes de Sant Pere de Graudescale.^[10]
• 1244–1274 – Jaume I's chronicle has candles totes de un pes, all of one weight.^[10]
• 13th century – Llull writes of God's weighing of good and evil.^[3][11]
• 1284 – aver de pes in a Roussillon document.^[3]
• 1390 – the Casa del Pes de la Farina in Barcelona.^[3]
• 1410 – un pes de florins, scales for weighing coins, in an inventory.^[12]
• 1932 – Fabra defines it as the property of bodies that makes them tend towards the centre of the Earth.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. weight, the property of bodies that pulls them towards the centre of the Earth and makes them press on what supports them: La prestatgeria va cedir sota el pes dels llibres.^[13][4][1]
2. The result of weighing something: Li va donar el pes just.^[13][2]
3. (physics) The mass of a body multiplied by the acceleration of gravity.^[13][4]
4. Something that weighs on the mind; a burden.^[13][4]
5. Importance or influence: un home de pes.^[13][12]
6. A piece of metal of known weight used on scales; a weight that drives a mechanism, as of a clock.^[13][1]
7. (sport) A heavy weight used in training; the shot thrown in the shot put.^[13]
8. (historical) The public place where goods were officially weighed.^[13][12]

Word family

• contrapès
• sobrepès

Related words

• pesar
• pesa
• Latin pēnsum
• Italian peso
• French poids

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. pes
3. ^ 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, 464
4. ^ a b c d Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. pes
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Alibert, Louis (1966), Dictionnaire occitan-français selon les parlers languedociens, Toulouse: Institut d'Études Occitanes, p. s.v. pes
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pensum
10. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. pes
11. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. pes
12. ^ a b c d e Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. pes
13. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. pes
14. ^ Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. pes