pesar

Forms

pesar (first-person singular present peso, first-person singular preterite pesí, past participle pesat); root stress: (Northern) /e̞/, (Balearic, Central, Northwestern, Valencia) /e/^[1] The DCVB records /pəˈza/, /peˈza/, /peˈzaɾ/ and /peˈsaɾ/.^[2] Llull also wrote pezar.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan pesar, which is inherited from Latin pēnsō (“to weigh carefully”), the frequentative or intensive of pendō (“to weigh”).^[4][2][5][1] The noun meaning “sorrow” is the infinitive used as a noun.^[2][4]

The same Latin verb is Occitan pesar, Spanish pesar, Portuguese pesar, Italian pesare and French peser.^[1] Its semi-learned doublet is pensar “to think”.^[1][6]

The noun pes “weight” is not derived from the verb but comes from pēnsum, the weight of wool a slave had to spin in a day.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is recorded from the beginning of the language, in Jaume I and in Llull, both with an object (“to weigh something”) and without (“to have weight”).^[4] In the Llibre de meravelles an alchemist's gold pesava mil dobles “weighed a thousand doblas”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Very early the verb also meant “to grieve, to be sorry”, as in the other Romance languages: in the Llibre dels fets a Muslim commander answers que no-ns pesàs “let it not grieve us”.^[4] This use was so frequent that it became fixed in several ways before the end of the 13th century: as a noun, lo pesar “sorrow”, which Jaume I and Llull use and Llull already puts in the plural pesàs; in the preposition a pesar de “in spite of”, frequent in the Llibre dels fets; and in the formula a qui-s que pes “whoever may mind”.^[4][3]

The 1839 dictionaries list the noun with the senses of inner sorrow and of repentance for a fault.^[8][9] Fabra gives a pesar de as “despite”, and the DIEC2 keeps the noun and adds a pesar que “even though”.^[10][11]

In trade the pesador was the officer who weighed goods at the customs house of Tunis, and pesador is recorded in 1304.^[7][12] Among the derivatives pesant “heavy” is in the 13th-century Vides de sants, pesat in the 15th century and contrapès in 1460.^[7]

Timeline

• 1244–1274 – Jaume I uses the verb, the noun pesar “sorrow” and a pesar de in the Llibre dels fets.^[4][13]
• 1261 – pesar in the Furs de València, CICA's first record.^[14]
• 1271 – Llull writes pesar and pezar and uses the noun in the Llibre de contemplació.^[3]
• 1304 – first record of pesador.^[7]
• 1460 – in the Tirant lo Blanc Diafebus asks to weigh the gold he was given.^[13]
• 1839 – Labèrnia lists the noun first, then the verb.^[8]
• 1932 – Fabra gives the noun and the verb as separate articles.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To weigh; to measure the weight of: Pesa les patates a la balança.^[11][5]
2. (transitive) To weigh up, to ponder; to consider the pros and cons of something.^[11][1]
3. (intransitive) To have weight;^[1] (transitive) to have a given weight: La maleta pesa vint quilos.^[11][2]
4. (intransitive) To bear down, to be a burden; by extension, to count, to matter.^[11]
5. (intransitive) To grieve, to cause regret: Em pesa no haver-te escrit.^[11][1]

Noun

1. sorrow, regret, especially for something one has done.^[11][2]
2. a pesar de: despite, in spite of.^[11][10]

Word family

• apesarar
• apesarat
• pesable
• pesada
• pesador
• pesant
• pesantor
• pesarós
• pesat
• repesar

Related words

• pes
• pensar
• Latin pēnsō
• Spanish pesar

Usage notes

The DCVB also heads a pesar that is only a spelling of passar.^[2] Medieval Valencian trade records write the officer's title pesador and pessador as well as pasar and passar.^[12]

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 Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. pesar
3. ^ a b c Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. pesar
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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
5. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. pesar
6. ^ Viccionari (Catalan Wiktionary), https://ca.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. pesar
7. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 702
8. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. pesar
9. ^ Una Societat de Catalans (1839), Diccionari catalá-castellá-llatí-frances-italiá, 2 vols., Barcelona: Joseph Torner, p. s.v. pesar
10. ^ a b c Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. pesar
11. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. pesar
12. ^ a b Gual Camarena, Miguel, Vocabulario del comercio medieval, online edition, Universidad de Murcia, https://www.um.es/lexico-comercio-medieval, p. s.v. pesar
13. ^ a b Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. pesar
14. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. pesar