basa

Forms

basa f (plural basas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin basis (“base, pedestal”), as Corominas, García de Diego and already the Diccionario de Autoridades say; it is the older Spanish form of base, taken from the same Latin word.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis, “stepping, step; base, pedestal”).^[1][6] The DLE and Moliner instead derive it from the verb basar, which Corominas first finds only in 1873.^[7][8][2]

According to Corominas, until the 17th century only this form was used, in all the senses of the modern word.^[2] The Latinising form appeared in 1709, first as a term of mathematics and physics, and gradually took over until the older one was left with the sense “seat of a column or statue”.^[2][3] The unchanged Latin form was also used in Spanish in the 16th–18th centuries.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Libro de Alexandre (c. 1250) describes a palace of four hundred columns: todas de oro fino japiteles e basas “all of fine gold, capitals and bases”.^[9][3] DEMel lists Old Spanish spellings basa, bassa, vasa and balssa.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts basa was also the foot of a vessel: an Old Testament translation of about 1300 speaks of the basin con su basa “with its stand”.^[11] Nebrija gives basa de coluna with Latin basis.^[12] Covarrubias in 1611 defines it as the pedestal of a column, on which statues bear their names, and adds that in card games the tricks won are called basas or baças.^[13] Cervantes uses it figuratively: la valentía que no se funda sobre la basa de la prudencia, se llama temeridad “courage not founded on the base of prudence is called rashness”.^[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades distinguishes the seat of a column or statue, the lower body of a column or pedestal in architecture, and the figurative “foundation, principle”, which the Academy kept until the 19th century.^[5][15][16] Domínguez in 1846 recorded the basa ática of two tori with a scotia between them.^[17] In Guatemala and Costa Rica a basa is a concrete or wooden pillar that lifts a house above floods, and in Chile, rarely, a tree trunk.^[18]

Timeline

• c. 1250 – the Libro de Alexandre has basas of columns.^[9][3][10]
• c. 1300 – a Bible translation uses basa for the stand of a basin.^[11]
• 1404 – the compound sobasa is recorded for part of a column.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives basa de coluna, Latin basis.^[12]
• 1541 – the first record from the Americas, in Puebla: basas e capiteles “bases and capitals”.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records the sense “trick won at cards”.^[13]
• 1709 – the Latinising form base is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1873 – the verb basar is first recorded.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A base or foundation.^[7][8]
2. (architecture) The seat on which a column (columna) or a statue stands.^[7]
3. (architecture) The lowest part of a column, on which the shaft (fuste) rests, in every order except the Doric.^[7][20]
4. (Guatemala, Costa Rica) A concrete or wooden pillar on which a house is raised above the ground.^[18]
5. (Chile, rare) A tree trunk.^[18]

Related words

• base
• basar
• basamento
• balsa
• Latin basis

Usage notes

Basa ática is a base made of a scotia between two fillets and two tori, and basa corintia one with two scotiae.^[7] In Aragon basa also means a pool of water, the same word as balsa;^{[8][21][22][23]} DICCA-XV takes it from Catalan bassa, and the BDELC refers it to balsa, a pre-Roman, probably Iberian word.^{[8][21][22][23]} On El Hierro in the Canaries basa is the dry fallen needles of the pine, a word the Canarian historical dictionary thinks may be pre-Hispanic.^[24][25]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 536
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. base
4. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 944
5. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 1, 568
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. basis
7. ^ a b c d e 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. basa
8. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. basa
9. ^ a b 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. 501
10. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. basa
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. basa
12. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 302
13. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 286
14. ^ Cejador y Frauca, Julio (1905–1906), La lengua de Cervantes: gramática y diccionario de la lengua castellana en El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha, 2 vols., Madrid: Jaime Ratés, p. 173
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 454
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 101
17. ^ 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. 240
18. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. basa
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. basa
20. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. basa
21. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 907
22. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. basa
23. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. balsa
24. ^ Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. basa
25. ^ 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. basa