verd

Forms

verd (feminine verda, masculine plural verds, feminine plural verdes)^[1] The medieval spelling was vert, and the word had one form for both genders: Llull writes color blava e vert.^[2][3] The feminine verda appears in Roussillon from 1311 and 1326, and in the rest of the language area by the end of the 15th century.^[2] The DCVB records the pronunciations bέɾt, bέ̞ɾt, vέ̞ɾt, və́ɾt and vélt.^[4] Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza have the neutral vowel, Capcir a close /e/ (bért, bérda at Formiguera, 1960), and Valencian an open /ɛ/.^[2] Most of Ribagorça keeps the old feminine verd (herba vert at Taüll).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin virdis, the syncopated form of Latin viridis (“green”).^[1][2][4][5] Corominas holds that all the Romance forms come from the syncopated form, which must already have been Vulgar Latin, judging by its derivative *virdia, the source of Spanish berza.^[6] The Latin adjective is from vireō (“to be green, flourish”); the OLD calls it irregular for an expected *viridus.^[7][1]

The same Latin word is Italian verde, French vert, Occitan verd, Spanish verde, Portuguese verde and Romanian verde.^[8][1]

The Latin adjective had one form for both genders, as the word still has in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese, and Catalan kept it so through the Middle Ages before forming a feminine like other adjectives of colour.^[2] Its short /i/ gave an open /ɛ/ in Central and Eastern Catalan; in the western dialects, where a mid /e/ would be expected, the /r/ before final /t/ opened the vowel too.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated record is from 1258, in the accounts of the household of the Infante Peter: two and a quarter ells of vert de Cambraix, green cloth of Cambrai, for a mantle and a tunic.^[2] Here verd is already a noun, short for drap verd, green cloth.^[2] The DCVB also dates its first quotation to 1258.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word described artificial colour as well as plants: Muntaner tells how the people of Valencia took 150 green torches to the coronation of King Alfonso in 1327.^[2] It was used most of all for cloth and clothing, and for dyeing; a Roussillon rule of 1307 forbids dyeing woollen cloth green except with weld.^[2] In the Consolat de Mar en vert is a damp place.^[2] As a noun the word also meant a green pigment (1401) and verdigris.^[3]

The senses "not dry" and "not ripe" are medieval too: fresh and dried fruit in the Constitucions de Catalunya, unripe grapes in the Tirant lo Blanc (1460), and wine made harsh by unripe grapes at the end of the 14th century.^[3] Esteve, Bellvitges and Juglà (1803) give cap verd for a person of little judgement, and Figuera (1840) jay verd, an old man still given to love.^[9][10] The GDLC adds the modern sense "ecological" and els verds for the ecologist parties.^[5]

Old derivatives are verdet (1249), verdura (13th century, Cerverí), verdor (14th century, Llull) and verdejar (14th century, Eiximenis); verger (14th century, Llull) is from Latin viridiarium.^[11]

Timeline

• 1258 – vert de Cambraix, green cloth, in the household accounts of the Infante Peter.^[2]
• 1307 – a Roussillon rule on dyeing cloth green.^[2]
• 1326 – lenya verda, the first feminine verda, in Roussillon.^[2]
• 1327 – Muntaner's chronicle mentions green torches.^[2]
• 1460 – Tirant lo Blanc has grapes verts, unripe.^[3]
• 1466 – Valencian recipes use both vert and verda for the feminine.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. green, of the colour of fresh grass.^[5][12]
2. (hyperbolic) Pale and greenish in the face, from illness or a strong emotion: verd d'enveja.^[5][12]
3. Not yet dry, said of trees, firewood, pulses.^[5][12]
4. unripe, said of fruit.^[5][12]
5. (figurative) Not yet ready or skilled, inexperienced.^[5][12]
6. Of the early years of life; youthful;^[13] vell verd: an old man still given to sex.^[5][4]
7. Dealing with sex too freely, smutty: una pel·lícula verda.^[5][12]
8. (ecology) Ecological; concerned with protecting the environment.^[5]

Noun

1. The colour green.^[5][12]
2. A green colouring matter.^[5][12]
3. The green part of a plant; leaves, grass.^[5][12]
4. (in the plural) Members or supporters of the ecologist parties.^[5]

Word family

• enverdir
• reverdir
• reverdiment
• verdaleta
• verdaula
• verdejant
• verderol
• verderola
• verdet
• verdor
• verdós
• verdosenc
• verduc
• verdugada

Related words

• verger
• Latin viridis
• Spanish verde
• French vert

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 n o p q 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, 150
3. ^ a b c d Faraudo de Saint-Germain, Lluís, Vocabulari de la llengua catalana medieval, online edition, Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, p. s.v. verd
4. ^ a b c d Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. verd
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. verd
6. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 781
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. viridis
9. ^ Esteve, Joaquim; Bellvitges, Josep; Juglà, Antoni (1803–1805), Diccionario catalán-castellano-latino, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. verd
10. ^ Figuera, Pere Antoni (1840), Diccionari mallorquí-castellà, Palma de Mallorca, p. s.v. verd
11. ^ Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 956
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. verd
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 430