bisel

Forms

bisel m (plural biseles)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old French bisel, the form of modern French biseau.^[2][3][4] The DLE and Wiktionary instead call the source a dialectal variant of the standard form.^[5][1] The Diccionario de Autoridades (1726) already said the word came from French and was used in Aragon.^[6]

The French word is recorded from the 13th century and its origin is uncertain, though Corominas has no doubt that it is related to biais (“slant”).^[2][3] He rejects Ruppert's idea that French took it from Spanish, from viso in the sense of a shining surface.^[2] He also finds a direct derivation from the word for “slant”, proposed by Gamillscheg and Meyer-Lübke, hard to accept, since the diphthong would have left traces and the ⟨s⟩ of so old a derivative would be voiceless.^[2] Wartburg's derivation of all these words from Latin bis (“twice”) he calls absurd, a suffix on a prefix with no root.^[2] His own suggestion is a diminutive *biaisel, formed in French when the word for “slant” was taken from Occitan biais in the 13th century, with the triphthong of the Occitan form turned into ⟨i⟩.^[2] The DHLF, which dates the standard form to 1451, likewise derives it from the word for “slant”, through a form *biaiseau.^[7] The Academy's dictionary in 1884 and 1899 offered the Latin word for “twice” with sectilis (“cut”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Juan de Arfe's Quilatador de la plata, oro y piedras (1572) uses it for the sloping edge of a cut stone: a de tener el visel una quarta parte “the bevel must have one fourth part”.^[10] Corominas's first record is the agricultural dialogues of Juan de Pineda of Valladolid (1589).^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

After Pineda, Corominas finds the word again only in the 19th century, though the dictionaries of the 17th century (from Palet, 1604) list it; he concludes that it is a late word.^[2] The CDH has a silver bisel among the goods of Philip II (c. 1600) and figurative biseles of diamonds in Paravicino (1633).^[10]

The early dictionaries used it for the bevelled edge of a mirror or of the glass of a reliquary.^[6][11] Terreros (1786) adds the angle formed by the faces of cut glass and diamonds, and the ring of a watch into which the dial fits;^[12][13][14] Salvá (1846) the cut that holds a stone in a jeweller's setting;^[12][13][14] Gaspar y Roig the slope of the edge of cutting tools.^[12][13][14] From 1884 the Academy gave the general sense of an oblique cut on the edge of a flat piece, as on the edge of a tool.^[8][9] The verb biselar is recorded from 1888.^[2]

Timeline

• 1572 – Juan de Arfe writes visel for the bevel of a cut stone.^[10]
• 1589 – Juan de Pineda, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1600 – the inventories of Philip II list a box with a silver bisel.^[10]
• 1604 – Palet's dictionary lists the word.^[2]
• 1726 – the Diccionario de Autoridades calls it Aragonese and taken from French.^[6]
• 1786 – Terreros adds the sense of the ring of a watch.^[12]
• 1857 – Bécquer describes foliage cut a bisel.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy proposes Latin bis and sectilis as the etymon.^[8]
• 1888 – first record of the verb biselar.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bevel: an oblique cut on the edge or end of a plate or sheet, as on the edge of a tool or round a cut glass: El espejo tiene un bisel fino en todo el borde.^[5][4][1]
2. The ring into which the dial and crystal of a watch are fitted, the bezel.^[15][12]

Word family

• biselar

Related words

• French biseau
• French biais

Usage notes

A bisel means “cut obliquely”, of carving, wood or glass.^[15][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 592
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bisel
4. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. bisel
5. ^ a b 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. bisel
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
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. biseau
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 153
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 141
10. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. bisel
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 131
12. ^ a b c d e Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 248
13. ^ a b c Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 155
14. ^ a b c 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, 372
15. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. bisel