raïm

Forms

raïm m (plural raïms)^[1] Old Catalan wrote raym, rahim and rehim; the plural rayms appears in the Cocentaina court book of 1269–1290.^[2][3][4] Eastern Catalan and the western and Valencian dialects keep two syllables, raïm;^[1] Roussillon and part of the Empordà say rim;^[1] Palma, most of Mallorca and Menorca say rem, probably Eivissa too, with reïm in some large Mallorcan towns such as Manacor and Sóller.^[2][5] The one-syllable Mallorcan form is already shown by the metre in a poem of Anselm Turmeda.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan raïm, spelt ⟨raym⟩ and ⟨rahim⟩ in the medieval texts, which is inherited from Vulgar Latin racīmus (“bunch of grapes”), a variant of racēmus (“bunch, cluster”).^[2][6][1] The DCVB derives it directly from the classical form.^[5] Coromines thinks the variant with /i/ was no younger than the classical form, both being taken from a language spoken in Italy before Latin.^[2] Wiktionary notes that the Late Latin form is recorded from the second half of the 6th century, in Gregory the Great and later glosses.^[1]

The same Latin word is Occitan rasim, Spanish racimo and French raisin;^[7] Italian replaced it with the diminutive Italian racimolo.^[7][2][8] It also lived on in Mozarabic, and an Arabised form of it reached Morocco.^[2][7]

The Latin word is not inherited from Proto-Indo-European: de Vaan takes it as probably a loan from a Mediterranean language, and compares Ancient Greek ῥάξ (rháx, “grape”).^[9] Coromines too calls it pre-Italic, linked with other pre-Indo-European words of the Mediterranean.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Jaume I's chronicle, dated 1244 in Faraudo's vocabulary, tells of some twenty pack animals loaded with oats, kids, hens and grapes, e els raims eren aytals que ls aduyem en sachs e no s trencaven “and the grapes were such that we brought them in sacks and they did not break”.^[10] Coromines places the first records in the 13th century, in Llull, the Catalan lives of the saints and Jaume I.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both the whole bunch and a single grape: Llull's Blanquerna has a wolf doing penance in a vineyard by eating dels rahims every day, and Onofre Pou's dictionary lists raym with lo gra del raym “the grape of the bunch”.^[2][11] Coromines finds that the sense “single grape” is commoner towards the north, while Valencian holds more firmly to the Latin sense of the bunch;^[3] Ros's dictionary of 1764 still defined it only as the bunch.^[2]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 extends it to other fruits and to things, animals or people crowded together like grapes, and to a botanical inflorescence.^[12] Many plant names are formed with it, such as raïm de guineu (herb Paris) and raïm de llop.^[13][2]

Timeline

• 1244 – raims in Jaume I's chronicle.^[10]
• 1269–1290 – rayms in the court book of Cocentaina.^[3]
• Late 13th century – Llull's Blanquerna has the wolf eating rahims in the farmer's vineyard.^[11][2]
• 1295 – rayms in a charge brought against Pere de Palau at Camarasa.^[10]
• 1460 – Tirant lo Blanc writes rayms.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary heads the word raïm.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bunch of grapes, the fruit of the vine; also a single grape: Hem collit tres raïms de moscatell.^[13][5][1]
2. A cluster of other fruits, or of things, animals or people gathered tightly together.^[13][6]
3. (botany) A raceme, an inflorescence with stalked flowers along a main axis.^[13][5]
4. In set phrases, the name of various plants: raïm de guineu (herb Paris), raïm de bruixa.^[13]

Word family

• raïmada
• raïmar
• raïmat
• raïmera
• raïmet
• raïmós

Related words

• gotim
• Latin racēmus
• Occitan rasim
• Spanish racimo

Usage notes

The DCVB has a second, feminine raïm “womb, uterus”, from Arabic, which it heads separately.^[5] Faraudo records it as rrahim in the Catalan version of Ibn Wāfid's book of simple medicines.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. 7, 54
3. ^ a b c Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. rayms
4. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. rahim
5. ^ 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. raïm
6. ^ a b Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. raïm
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6984
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 746
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. raïm
11. ^ a b Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. raïm
12. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. raïm
13. ^ 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. raïm