bóveda

Forms

bóveda f (plural bóvedas)^[1] Old Spanish had bóvada (bouada) in the 13th century, beside boueda; the modern form bóveda is recorded from about 1400.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish bóvada.^[2][1] According to Corominas and Pascual it is borrowed from Gothic *buwiþa, a participial derivative of the common Germanic verb Proto-Germanic *būaną (“to dwell, build”).^[2][4][1] In Gothic only a compound verb “to build a dwelling” is recorded, and in Old High German only the derived forms gebueda and gebiuweda “dwelling”.^[2] The Spanish word keeps the Germanic ending and stress, but its first vowel became ⟨o⟩ under the influence of the Romance synonym *volta.^[2] The same Germanic word gives Catalan buada (“vault, dome”) and Portuguese abóbada.^[2][5] Wiktionary considers this origin very likely.^[1]

The BDELC, the DRAE of 2001, Moliner, García de Diego, Gómez de Silva and Bénaben derive the word instead from Vulgar Latin *volvita (“turn; vault”), an alteration of Latin volūta (“volute”), from volvō (“to roll, turn”).^{[6][7][8][9][10][11]} Corominas held this view in the first edition of his dictionary, but now sees serious phonetic objections: the stressed ⟨o⟩ should have become ⟨ue⟩, the vowel after the stress should have been lost, as in vuelto, and some trace of the ⟨l⟩ should remain, as in volver.^[2] The REW too lists the Spanish and Portuguese words under the same Vulgar Latin form.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284) describes a church of marble built a bouada, “vaulted”, with arches, and chambers a bouada where animals were kept apart.^[3][13] Earlier hits in the CDH, Isidro de Bouada (1234) and the village of Boveda (1256), are a personal name and a place name.^[3]

Semantic evolution

A Latin–Spanish glossary of about 1400 renders Latin testudo as boveda, and Nebrija in 1495 gives testudo and camera; in the Amadís (c. 1496) the knights enter a great hall que era de bóveda.^[14][2] From the 15th century the word also named a room covered by a vault, and the Diccionario de Autoridades adds the vaults under the floor of churches where the dead are buried.^[14][15]

The old phrase hablar de bóveda or en bóveda, “to speak hollowly and arrogantly”, is recorded in Guatemala in 1568 and was marked obsolete by the Academy in 1843.^[16][17] Domínguez in 1846 has la bóveda celeste for the sky and anatomical uses for anything convex and rounded, such as the vault of the skull and of the palate.^[18][19] In the Americas bóveda is the strongroom of a bank, a family mausoleum (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) and a block of burial niches in a cemetery.^[4][20]

Timeline

• 1234 – Isidro de Bouada, a personal name in a charter.^[3]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses a bouada “vaulted”.^[3][13]
• c. 1400 – a Latin–Spanish glossary has the form boveda.^[14][2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives testudo and camera as its Latin equivalents.^[14]
• 1565 – the first record in the Americas, in Yucatán, for a church with three vaulted naves.^[16]
• c. 1570 – the verb abovedar is first recorded.^[6]
• 1843 – the Academy marks hablar de bóveda as obsolete.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the word from Latin voluta.^[21]

Meanings

Noun

1. (architecture) A vault: an arched structure that covers the space between two supports and forms the ceiling or roof of a building.^[4][1]
2. A room built without timber whose roof is a vault.^[4]
3. A crypt.^[4][1]
4. A grave or burial place.^[4]
5. (Argentina) A family mausoleum.^[4][20]
6. (Latin America) The strongroom of a bank, where money and valuables are kept.^[4][20]

Word family

• abovedar
• bovedilla
• embovedar

Related words

• vuelta
• voluta
• Catalan buada
• Portuguese abóbada

Usage notes

Bóveda celeste is the sky as it appears to an observer, and the DLE also records bóveda baída, a hemispherical vault cut by four vertical planes.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 646
3. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bóveda
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. bóveda
5. ^ 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. 2, 308
6. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bóveda
7. ^ Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. bóveda
8. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bóveda
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 7269
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México
11. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. bóveda
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ a b c d Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 543
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 675
16. ^ a b 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. bóveda
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 111
18. ^ Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 280
19. ^ Gaspar y Roig (eds.) (1853–1855), Biblioteca ilustrada de Gaspar y Roig: Diccionario enciclopédico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Imprenta y Librería de Gaspar y Roig, p. 1, 398
20. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 165