celda

Forms

celda f (plural celdas)^[1] The 13th- and 14th-century texts spell it çelda or çella, the latter pronounced with a double /l/.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin cella (“small room; sanctuary; storeroom”).^[4][3][5] Corominas explains the cluster /ld/ as the result of a failed effort to pronounce the double /ll/ of the Latin word, and the oldest Spanish texts still have the spelling çella.^[4][3] Wiktionary compares rebelde for the same development.^[1]

The same Latin word had given a popular form Old Spanish ciella, used by Berceo and in the Libro de Apolonio, which became cilla “granary” and later “tithe revenue”.^[4][6] The learned word is Catalan cel·la, Portuguese cela and Italian cella.^[7][8][9] Corominas notes that Catalan place names keep a popular form with a single /l/, overlaid in the 13th century by the learned pronunciation of the monastic word.^[7] Basque gela “room” also comes from the Latin word.^[9][6]

De Vaan suggests that the Latin word may go back to *cēla by the Latin rule that replaces a long vowel and a single consonant with a short vowel and a double one, so that it would keep the long-vowel base of cēlō (“to hide”); it could also be a diminutive.^[10] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to cover”), though the exact formation is uncertain.^[1] Varro already derived it from the verb for hiding.^[11][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest hit in the form çelda is in the Castilian translation of the Cantigas de Santa María (before 1284): la santa dueña entro en una çelda “the holy lady went into a cell”.^[2] Alfonso X's Estoria de España (c. 1270) has çella for the cell where Saint Benedict the Younger lived.^[2][12] The sense was thus at first the small room of a monk or hermit; the BDELC dates celda about 1400, in the Cancionero de Baena.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 defines the word as the small, secluded room of monks and nuns, and derives it from celado “hidden”, because they live there alone in prayer and penance.^[13] The Diccionario de Autoridades has the same sense, extends it to any small secluded place such as the cells of a honeycomb, and records the captain's cabin on a ship, a sense already in Nebrija.^[14] It also gives the proverb no hay cosa más buena que estarse uno en su celda, advising religious people to keep away from worldly affairs.^[14]

The prison cell entered the Academy's dictionary in 1899, as the rooms of the cellular prisons.^[15] Today it is the first sense in the DLE, while the cabin and the general sense “chamber” are marked as out of use.^[5] Modern usage adds the cell of a table or spreadsheet, and in Mexico, Peru and Honduras a compartment where chemical or electrical processes take place.^[16][17] Tagalog borrowed the word as selda.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1270 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses the learned form çella.^[2][12]
• before 1284 – çelda in the Castilian translation of the Cantigas de Santa María.^[2]
• c. 1400 – celda in the Cancionero de Baena, the BDELC's first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin cella and cellula as its equivalents.^[18]
• 1568 – the first record from the Americas, in Chile.^[19]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the word from celado “hidden”.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy records the cells that bees build in honeycombs.^[20]
• 1899 – the prison cell first appears in the Academy's dictionary.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cell in a prison, where prisoners are locked up: Pasó tres noches en una celda húmeda.^[5][1]
2. A small individual room in a school, college or similar institution.^[5]
3. A monk's or nun's room in a convent.^[5][21]
4. A cell of a honeycomb (celdilla).^[5][21]
5. A cell of a table or spreadsheet, where a row and a column meet.^[16]
6. (Mexico, Peru, Honduras) A compartment of a device in which chemical or electrical processes take place.^[17]
7. (obsolete) The captain's cabin on a ship; a chamber.^[5]

Word family

• celdilla
• enceldar

Related words

• célula
• cilla
• cillero
• Latin cella

Usage notes

Celda caliente is a shielded installation for handling irradiated material.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. celda
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. celda
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 19
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. celda
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. cella
7. ^ a b 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, 660
8. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 779
9. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cella
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cella
12. ^ 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. celda
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. 1, 575
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, s.v. celda
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 214
16. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. celda
17. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. celda
18. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 323
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. celda
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 193
21. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. celda