poble

Forms

poble m (plural pobles)^[1] Old Catalan also had the variant pòbol, which Llull uses beside poble and which is frequent in the oldest texts;^[1] poble became general with the later writers.^[2] The DCVB records pronunciations with a doubled /bb/ and with /pl/ or /ppʎ/ in different dialects.^[3] In the Valencian area Nules says pòvle with a labiodental, and some villages of the Horta use the Spanish pueblo.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan poble, which is inherited from Latin populus (“people, the body of citizens”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]}

The same Latin word is Occitan pòble, French peuple, Spanish pueblo, Italian popolo, Portuguese povo and Romanian popor.^[6][1]

The Latin word comes from *poplos (“army”); its further origin is unknown.^[7][1] Wiktionary mentions as possibilities a borrowing from Etruscan or a link with the root of pleō (“to fill”).^[1]

The sense of a village or small settlement has been suspected of being imitated from Spanish, since the medieval dictionaries hardly record it and it is foreign to Italian, French and Occitan.^[2] Coromines rejects the suspicion: he finds scattered examples from 1172 on and explains the sense as a noun formed from the verb poblar, like pobla.^[2] The Viccionari calls this sense a semantic calque of Spanish, of the 15th century.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Homilies d'Organyà, at the end of the 12th century, where the city of Sidon stands for lo poble, the people who were led to death by the Devil before Christ came, and the Church never stops praying per son poble, for its people.^[2][5][9] It meant the people as a whole, especially the faithful.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the medieval texts poble is the people of a country or the inhabitants of a city: Llull speaks of the people of the Jews and of the people of a city who killed a philosopher, and Eiximenis in 1381 of the people of Valencia as a people chosen among those of Spain.^[10][11] It also meant the common people as against the nobles, as in the poems of Pero Martines.^[11]

The sense of a small settlement is rare in the Middle Ages: a document of 1360 speaks of increasing the castels e pobles, and Torra's dictionary of 1647 glosses població, poble o vila with Latin oppidum.^[2] The line between poble and vila or ciutat was long unclear: a letter of 1660 calls the city of Girona aqueix poble, and in the Valencian area poble still competes with lloc.^[2] Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 lists the place, its people, the common people and a settlement smaller than a town.^[12] Fabra and the DIEC2 keep these senses and add the Christians as el poble cristià.^[13][14]

The verb poblar is recorded in Llull, pobla "a new settlement" in Desclot, and població in the Customs of Tortosa of 1272.^[4]

Timeline

• Late 12th century – poble in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[2][9]
• 1250 – a document from the Alt Cardener writes pobble.^[2]
• Late 13th century – Llull uses both pòbol and poble.^[2]
• 1272 – població in the Customs of Tortosa.^[4]
• 1360 – castels e pobles, an early use for settlements.^[2]
• 1381 – Eiximenis writes of lo poble valencià.^[11]
• 1647 – Torra's dictionary equates poble with població and vila.^[2]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary gives the place, its inhabitants and the common people.^[12]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary heads the word with the people of a country.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A people, the inhabitants of a territory or country united by social and political ties and a shared culture: el poble gallec.^[14][5]
2. The inhabitants of a city or town: Tot el poble va sortir a rebre’ls.^[14][3]
3. el poble cristià: the Christians;^[1] el poble sant: God's chosen people, the Jews.^[14]
4. A village, a small settlement that is neither a town nor a city.^[14][3]
5. The common people, the classes that do not hold power;^[1] baix poble or poble menut: the lowest social stratum.^[14][3]
6. (liturgy) The congregation taking part in a service.^[5]

Word family

• poblar
• pobla
• població
• poblador
• poblat
• despoblar
• despoblat
• repoblar
• poblejar
• poblet
• pobletà

Related words

• popular
• populós
• populatxo
• Latin populus
• Occitan pòble
• Spanish pueblo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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, 626
3. ^ 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. poble
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 724
5. ^ 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. poble
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6654
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Viccionari (Catalan Wiktionary), https://ca.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. poble
9. ^ a b Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. poble
10. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. poble
11. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. poble
12. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. poble
13. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. poble
14. ^ a b c d e f 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. poble