tallar

Forms

tallar (first-person singular present tallo, first-person singular preterite tallí, past participle tallat)^[1] Old Catalan also wrote taylar, tayllar and talar.^[2][3][1] The DCVB records the pronunciations [təʎá], [təјá], [təá], [taʎá] and [taʎáɾ].^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan tallar, also written ⟨taylar⟩, which is inherited from Late Latin taliō (“to cut”), a verb formed from Latin tālea (“a cutting for planting; a thin piece of wood”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]} Coromines, the DCVB, Bruguera and the GDLC write the Vulgar Latin infinitive as ⟨taleare⟩, “to cut; to split”.^[2][4][5][6] Wiktionary notes that the verb is attested from the 6th century, and the compound intertāliō earlier, in Nonius.^[1]

The same Latin verb is Occitan talhar, Spanish tajar, Portuguese talhar, French tailler, Italian tagliare and Romanian tăia.^[7][1] The Spanish word is first recorded in the Glosas de Silos, in the second half of the 10th century.^[8]

The origin of the Latin noun is unclear.^[9][1] De Vaan calls its comparison with Ancient Greek τᾶλις (tâlis, “girl, bride”) a wild guess, and allows only a derivation from tālus (“ankle, knuckle”).^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Latin document of 1094 from the Alta Ribagorça, by which the timber needed is to be cut ubi mei homines tallant, “where my men cut”.^[2][5][6] The Costums de Tortosa use the verb repeatedly, of roots that may be pulled out and cut and of mountain timber, which must be cut de luna, at the right phase of the moon.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Coromines notes that in the Middle Ages the verb was used especially of cutting the human body: a chancery document of about 1326 speaks of cutting off a fugitive's nose and ears, and the Roussillon Vides de sants keep tallar for surgical incisions while other things are broken (trencar); from it came tall “operation”.^[2] In Roig's Spill it means “to crack” the skin.^[2] It was used of cutting out clothes and sails (the Consolat de mar, 1301), of putting people to the sword, in Muntaner (1325), of cutting honeycombs, in Roig, and of levying a tax (talla), in Igualada in 1462.^[3]

Labèrnia adds the butcher's sense, to sell meat to the public, which the GDLC marks as old.^[10][6][4] The verb is in general use over the whole language area, up to the high Pyrenean valleys; at Benasc it is used of cutting wood.^[2] Among its derivatives Bruguera dates entallar to Llull, atall to Roig (1460) and retall to 1591;^[5] detall (1533) is a borrowing from French.^[5]

Timeline

• 1094 – first record, in a Latin document of the Alta Ribagorça.^[2][5]
• 1272 – the Costums de Tortosa write taylar.^[2][4]
• 1301 – the Consolat de mar uses it of cutting sails.^[3]
• 1325 – Muntaner writes tayllaren “they put to the sword”.^[3]
• 1381 – Eiximenis uses it of felling woods.^[3]
• 1460 – Roig uses it of cutting honeycombs.^[3]
• 1462 – it means “to levy a tax” in a document of Igualada.^[3]
• 1839 – Labèrnia records the butcher's sense.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut something with a sharp instrument: M'he tallat amb el ganivet del pa.^[11][6][1]
2. To slice, to divide into parts: Talla la coca en vuit trossos.^[6][1]
3. To cut off a part of something.^[6][1]
4. To fell (trees); to clear (a wood).^[3][1]
5. To shape by cutting; to cut out (a garment).^[6][3]
6. To interrupt, to cut short.^[1][3]
7. (pronominal) To crack, to become chapped: Amb aquest vent se'm tallen les mans.^[11][6]
8. Of the wind or the cold: to be piercing.^[11][6]
9. Of a street or line: to cross another.^[6]
10. (card games) To cut the cards.^[1]
11. (historical) To work as a butcher.^[6][4]

Word family

• tall
• talla
• tallador
• tallant
• atallar
• atall
• entallar
• entalla
• entretallar
• retallar
• retall

Related words

• detall
• Latin tālea
• Occitan talhar
• Spanish tajar

Usage notes

The DIEC2 records the phrases poder-se tallar, said of a broth so thick that it could be cut, and tallar el nus gordià, to get round a difficulty that cannot be solved.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 8, 231
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. tallar
4. ^ a b c d e f g Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. tallar
5. ^ a b c d e f Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 876
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. tallar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8542
8. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 381
9. ^ a b 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 Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. tallar
11. ^ a b c d 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. tallar