roig

Forms

roig (feminine roja, masculine plural roigs or rojos, feminine plural roges)^[1] Medieval texts write rog, roig and royg; the feminine roja also appears as roga (Mar Roga 'Red Sea' in Reixac).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *ruiu, the spoken form of Latin rubeus (“reddish”), a derivative of ruber (“red”).^[3][4][1][5] Coromines stresses that the Latin word meant reddish, not the bright red of blood.^[2]

The same Latin word is Occitan roge, French rouge, Spanish rubio (“blond”), Spanish royo, Portuguese ruivo, Italian robbio and Romanian roib (“chestnut (of a horse)”).^[6][1][7]

The Latin family goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewdʰ- (“red”), the root of the English word red as well.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are bynames, frequent in the documents of the 12th century: a document from Hostafrancs in the Segarra tells of evildoers who took a barrel from one A. Rog, and a Guillem Rog signs an Andorran document of 1176.^[2][5] Coromines takes these bynames as proof that the word then meant reddish, of hair or complexion, not vermilion.^[2] The first literary uses are in the Catalan Vides de sants at the end of the 13th century.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

In Old Catalan the word usually meant reddish or ruddy, like the Latin word: red hair, the blush of shame, the faintly reddish planet Mars, the sun; uses for the colour of blood, such as Christ's garments in the Vides de sants, are exceptional.^[2] Jaume Roig distinguishes the two words in the Spill, where the name Adam is said to mean vermell o roig.^[2] Faraudo records it for red-haired people and for animals of a bright chestnut colour, in Manuel Dieç's book on mules and horses (1424).^[9]

Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 defines it first as the bright red of blood and then as a red tending to yellow.^[10] The GDLC defines it as red tending to yellow and uses it for red hair.^[3] The DCVB records the political sense of a left-wing person, an opponent of the monarchy in the 19th century and a Marxist in the 20th.^[5][11] Coromines notes that the radical workers of the late 19th century called themselves vermells, and he regards calling them rojos as a later innovation.^[2] Derivatives include enrogir (1696), rogenc and infraroig.^[4]

Timeline

• 12th century – A. rog, a byname in a document from Hostafrancs.^[2]
• 1176 – a Guillem Rog signs an Andorran document.^[2][5]
• 13th century, end – the Vides de sants use rog.^[2][3]
• 1424 – Manuel Dieç's book on horses speaks of mules totes roges.^[9]
• 1696 – enrogir in Lacavalleria's dictionary.^[4]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary defines roig as the colour of blood and as a yellowish red.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. red tending to yellow; reddish: una teula roja.^[3][5]
2. (of hair) ginger, red: Té els cabells rojos.^[3][9]
3. Bright red, the colour of blood (vermell).^[5]
4. (politics) Left-wing, revolutionary, especially socialist or communist.^[3][5]

Noun

1. The colour itself.^[5][12]
2. (politics) A leftist.^[3][1]

Word family

• rogenc
• rogent
• rogejar
• roget
• enrogir
• infraroig

Related words

• roent
• robí
• Latin rubeus
• Occitan roge
• French rouge

Usage notes

The DEIEC labels the noun as mainly Western and Northern Catalan, except in the south of Valencia.^[12] Roig is a common surname across the language area, with the variant Roi, often spelt Roy.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 398
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. roig
4. ^ a b c d Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 803
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. roig
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7408
7. ^ Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. royo
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. rouge
9. ^ a b c Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. roig
10. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. roig
11. ^ Rodamots: cada dia, un mot (online), https://rodamots.cat, p. s.v. roig
12. ^ a b Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. roig