vetllar

Forms

vetllar (first-person singular present vetllo, first-person singular preterite vetllí, past participle vetllat); root stress: (Valencia) /e/, (Central) /ɛ/^[1] Old Catalan wrote vetlar, vellar, veylar, veyllar and veytlar.^[2][1] Vetlar is an accepted variant today.^[1][3] The pronunciation is [bəʎˈʎa] in Central Catalan, [vəˈʎa] in Balearic, [beˈʎa] in North-Western and [velˈlaɾ] in Valencian.^[1] The DCVB also records forms with a velarised [ɫɫ].^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Catalan vetlar, which is inherited from Latin vigilō (“to stay awake, keep watch”).^{[2][4][5][6][1]} The learned doublet vigilar was borrowed from the same Latin verb and is recorded from 1803.^[5][1]

The same Latin verb is Occitan velhar, French veiller, Spanish velar and Romanian veghea.^[7][1]

The OLD and Wiktionary derive the Latin verb from the adjective vigil (“awake, watchful”);^[8][1][5][6] Bruguera and the GDLC relate it to vigeō (“to be lively, vigorous”).^[8][1][5][6]

Coromines calls the word central to the question of ⟨tl⟩ and ⟨tll⟩: the medieval scribes wrote ⟨vetlar⟩ or ⟨vellar⟩, sometimes ⟨veyllar⟩, for a double sound with a palatal tinge, weaker or stronger.^[2] The more careful ones showed the tinge with the spelling ⟨veytlar⟩, frequent in the Roussillon lives of saints and found in a regulation of 1381.^[2] In the north the palatal was reinforced into a geminate, while the Balearics and Valencia to the Ebro have a single palatal; in Valencia it may already have been lost by the mid-15th century.^[2] A direct relative of the group survives in the Upper Aragonese valleys, as ⟨beilar⟩ at Bielsa.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, of 1250, is in the trial of the heretics of Gósol: as En Josa lay dying, his daughter and another man were sent to see who was sitting up with him (qui·l vetlave).^[2] The DCVB dates to 1201 the Templars' rule that the bodies of the brothers sien vetlats en l'esglesa, but Coromines points out that only the Latin text is of 1201–1204 and the Catalan version is of about 1300.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The medieval texts use the verb for staying awake at night, for keeping vigil in prayer and for sitting up with the sick and the dead.^[2][9] Llull writes that it is better to pray to God and keep awake than to wish to sleep, and Jaume I falls asleep tired from watching.^[2] Desclot's king keeps vigil a whole night before making his offerings to the Virgin, and in 1374 the Infante John comes to keep vigil at El Puig.^[9] The figurative sense of watching closely is old as well: a treatise on coins compares the clipper to a wolf that watches round the sheepfold.^[9]

Labèrnia lists not sleeping, keeping guard, working at night, keeping watch before the Sacrament and watching over something;^[10][11] Fabra adds vetllar les armes, the vigil of arms of a future knight.^[10][11] The modern use with per, to look after the safety of someone or something, is the DIEC2's last sense.^[12]

The noun vetlla is recorded in the 14th century, vetllada and desvetllar in 1507, in Nebrija's dictionary adapted by Busa.^[5]

Timeline

• 1250 – the trial of the heretics of Gósol: qui·l vetlave.^[2]
• 13th century – Jaume I's chronicle and Llull's Blanquerna use vetlar.^[2]
• 1283 – Desclot's king hach vellat tota una nit.^[9]
• c. 1300 – the Catalan version of the Templars' rule: the brothers' bodies are to be watched in the church.^[2]
• 1350 – the Catalan Canon of Avicenna, the first record of the spelling vetllar in CICA.^[13]
• 1381 – a regulation of confraternities writes veytlassen.^[2]
• 1803 – the learned doublet vigilar.^[5]
• 1932 – Fabra records vetllar les armes.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To stay awake through the night or part of it; to stay up.^[12][6]
2. (intransitive) To keep guard at night; to work at night.^[12][6]
3. (transitive) To sit up at night with a sick person or with the dead before the burial: Els veïns van vetllar el difunt fins a l'alba.^[12][6][4]
4. (transitive) vetllar el Santíssim Sagrament: to take turns in prayer before the exposed Sacrament.^[12][4]
5. (transitive, historical) vetllar les armes: of a future knight, to spend the night beside his arms in a chapel.^[12][6]
6. (intransitive, with per) To watch over, look after the safety and preservation of someone or something: L'associació vetlla pels drets dels consumidors.^[12]

Word family

• desvetllar
• vetlla
• revetlla
• vetllada
• vetllador
• vetllaire

Related words

• vigilar
• vigilant
• vigilància
• vigília
• Latin vigilō
• Spanish velar

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 f g h i j k l m n 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, 219
3. ^ Institut d'Estudis Catalans, Diccionari essencial de la llengua catalana (DEIEC), online, https://deiec.iec.cat, p. s.v. vetllar
4. ^ 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. vetllar
5. ^ a b c d e f Bruguera, Jordi (1996), Diccionari etimològic, Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana, p. 963
6. ^ a b c d e f g Enciclopèdia Catalana, Gran diccionari de la llengua catalana (GDLC), Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana; online edition, https://www.diccionari.cat, p. s.v. vetllar
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. vetllar
10. ^ a b Labèrnia, Pere (1839–1840), Diccionari de la llengua catalana ab la correspondencia castellana y llatina, 2 vols., Barcelona, p. s.v. vetllar
11. ^ a b c Fabra, Pompeu (1932), Diccionari general de la llengua catalana, Barcelona: Llibreria Catalònia, p. s.v. vetllar
12. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vetllar
13. ^ Torruella, Joan; Pérez Saldanya, Manuel; Martines, Josep (dirs.), Corpus Informatitzat del Català Antic (CICA), https://www.cica.cat, p. s.v. vetllar