vent

Forms

vent m (plural vents)^[1] The DCVB records /bén/ and /vén/ beside /bént/ and /vént/.^[2] Wiktionary gives /ˈben/ for Central and North-Western Catalan and /ˈvent/, with the final /t/ pronounced, for Balearic and Valencian.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan vent, which is inherited from Latin ventus (“wind”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]} The same Latin word is Italian vento, French vent, Occitan vent, Spanish viento, Portuguese vento and Romanian vânt.^[6][1]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Italic *wentos and Proto-Indo-European *h₂wéh₁n̥ts (“blowing”), a present participle of *h₂weh₁- (“to blow”); its cognates include Old High German wint and Welsh gwynt.^[7][1] De Vaan explains its short vowel by Osthoff's law, which shortened a long vowel before /nt/.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines's first records are in Jaume I's chronicle, in the 13th century: ships about to be driven ashore by the heavy sea that the axeloc and the wind were raising, and the king's remark that after a long stay tot vent nos era bo “any wind was good for us”.^[3] Llull defines the wind as air set in motion: vent és àer mogut.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

From the Middle Ages the word also had transferred senses: an illusion or deceptive appearance, empty imagination (Llull's lo vent de son cap), vanity, as in tenir el cap ple de vent, and gas swelling the body, as in Jaume Roig's Spill.^[3][9] Muntaner and the Tirant use it for something vain and empty, and Bernat Metge for a rumour, vent popular.^[9]

The winds of the compass have their own names;^[3] Coromines lists those of the Maresme, among them mestral, tramuntana, gregal, llevant, xaloc, migjorn, llebeig and ponent, with garbí nearly the same as the llebeig.^[3] Old derivatives include ventall “fan” (14th century, Muntaner), sobrevent (Eiximenis) and contravent (1466); sotavent is recorded in 1803.^[4]

Fabra's dictionary of 1932 defines the word as the horizontal movement of air due to natural causes, with many set phrases of sailing.^[10] In the human towers of the castells, a vent is a member of the base who braces the legs of the second tier.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – Jaume I's chronicle, Coromines's first record;^[3] Llull defines the wind as moving air.^[3]
• 1261–1271 – vent in the Furs de València.^[11]
• 1325 – Muntaner uses vent for something vain and empty.^[9]
• 1381 – Bernat Metge's Lo somni: vent popular, rumour.^[9]
• 1460 – Jaume Roig's Spill: wind in the body.^[9]
• 1466 – the derivative contravent.^[4]
• 1932 – Fabra's Diccionari general.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. wind, the horizontal movement of air due to natural causes: Aquest matí bufava un vent fred del nord.^[12][5][1]
2. (nautical) Wind as it helps or hinders a ship; each rumb of the compass rose.^[2][5]
3. (geography) A cardinal point.^[5]
4. Air moved artificially, as with bellows.^[5][2]
5. (figurative) vanity, empty pride.^[3][2]
6. Gas in the body, flatulence.^[9][3]
7. (castells) A member of the base (pinya) who braces the legs of the second-tier castellers.^[1]
8. bon vent i barca nova: a farewell to someone or something one is glad to see go.^[12][1]

Word family

• contravent
• esventar
• sobrevent
• sotavent
• ventada
• ventar
• ventall
• ventafocs
• venteguera
• ventejar
• ventijol
• ventós

Related words

• ventilar
• Latin ventus
• Spanish viento
• French vent

Usage notes

In Formentera the wind names are those of the mainland, but people asked about the garbí answered that the word was Castilian;^[3] Coromines explains it by geography, the garbí being a wind tied to the coast of the mainland.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. vent
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. 9, 121
4. ^ a b c Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 955
5. ^ a b c d e Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. vent
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9212
7. ^ 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, p. s.v. ventus
8. ^ Nou glossari general lul·lià (NGGL), Centre de Documentació Ramon Llull, Universitat de Barcelona, https://nggl.ub.edu, p. s.v. vent
9. ^ a b c d e f Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. vent
10. ^ a b Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. vent
11. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. vent
12. ^ a b 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. vent