alga

Forms

alga f (plural algas)^[1] Popular dialect forms of the Latin word include arga in Galician, olga in Asturian, galga in Cantabria, oga in La Mancha and Old Spanish oba.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin alga (“seaweed”).^[3][4][5] Corominas doubts that it is a popular descendant of the Latin word, and compares it with ova.^[3] Autoridades already called it “a purely Latin word”, and Wiktionary calls it inherited.^[6][1] García de Diego lists popular forms from Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and La Mancha beside it.^[2]

Catalan alga is first recorded c. 1350, Portuguese alga in the 16th century, and French algue in 1551.^[7][8][9] Machado and Nascentes consider the Portuguese word learned.^[10][11]

The Latin word has no known etymology.^[12] It is often linked with ulva (“sedge, marsh grass”), which has a similar meaning, but the differences in form make De Vaan think of a loanword from another language.^[12] Others compare Germanic and Baltic words for rot and slime, but the link is doubtful.^[12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Lapidario (1250–1279, in a manuscript of 1276–1279) names a stone alga marina and says another smells like sea-wrack.^[13][14][15] Corominas dates the word only from 1555, in Laguna's translation of Dioscorides.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Laguna's Dioscorides (1555) distinguishes several kinds of alga marina, and Autoridades (1726) describes the sea-wrack thrown up by storms, adding that on Spain's Atlantic coast it was called ceiba.^[13][6] From 1817 to 1884 the Academy only referred to ova.^[16] In 1899 it added the botanical sense, a class of cellular water plants.^[17] The DLE now defines algae as eukaryotic organisms, single-celled or many-celled, living mostly in water and usually green with chlorophyll.^[5] Moliner notes that the name covers organisms that are not always related.^[18]

Timeline

• 1250–1279 – Alfonso X's Lapidario has alga marina.^[13][14]
• 1380–1385 – Ferrer Sayol's Libro de Palladio speaks of the juice of alga in ponds.^[15]
• 1495 – Nebrija gives alga as the Latin equivalent of ova.^[15]
• 1555 – Laguna's Dioscorides, Corominas's first record.^[3][13]
• 1726 – Autoridades describes the sea-wrack and calls the word Latin.^[6]
• 1870 – first record in the Americas, in Buenos Aires.^[19]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the botanical definition.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. An alga: any of the mostly aquatic organisms, single-celled or many-celled, that usually contain chlorophyll, also in the plural as the name of the group: La marea dejó la orilla llena de algas.^[5][1]

Related words

• ova
• Latin alga

Usage notes

Alga is feminine but takes el and un in the singular, because it begins with a stressed /a/: el alga, las algas.^[20][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. alga
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 158
4. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alga
5. ^ a b c d 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. alga
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 200
7. ^ 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. 1, 188
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 172
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. algue
10. ^ Machado, José Pedro (1987), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., 5 vols., Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, p. 190
11. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. alga
12. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. alga
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. alga
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. alga
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 50
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 46
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. alga
19. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. alga
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. alga