cilla

Forms

cilla f (plural cillas)^[1] The Old Spanish form was ciella, used by Berceo and in the Libro de Apolonio.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish ciella, inherited from Latin cella (“storeroom, larder; small room”).^[2][4][1] The learned borrowing of the same Latin word is celda (about 1400), whose ⟨ld⟩ comes from a failed attempt to pronounce the Latin double ⟨ll⟩.^[2][5] célula is a learned borrowing of the diminutive cellula.^[2]

The same word is Portuguese cela, Galician cela, Italian cella and Old French celle (“cellar”), and it was borrowed into Basque gela (“room”).^[6][7][8][1] In Catalan a popular form survives only in place names, and Catalan cel·la has a learned pronunciation.^[9]

De Vaan connects the Latin noun with cēlō (“to hide”) and the root Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- (“to hide”), perhaps through a form with a long vowel; the exact formation is uncertain.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Berceo, about 1230, uses ciella for a small room or cell: San Millán builds his ciella near the oratory, a narrow house full of precious treasure.^[3][2] In the Loores de Nuestra Señora Gabriel finds Mary en ciella “in her chamber”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense moved from “room” to the granary where the tithe grain was stored, the Latin sense “storeroom”: an Andalusian document of 1419 has cillas, and Nebrija about 1495 defines cilla as the place where grain is kept, Latin horreum.^[2][11] In 1611 Covarrubias described it as the chamber for the wheat of the tithes, and Autoridades called it a very common word in Castile.^[12][13] The Academy added the sense “tithe rent” in 1817.^[14] From 1869 it defined the granary in the past tense, as something no longer in use.^[15] In the Canaries cilla named the place where the tithe grain was kept, and later a threshing floor shared by several farmers.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1230 – first record, ciella “cell, room”, in Berceo's Vida de San Millán.^[3][2]
• 1419 – cillas “granaries” in an Andalusian document.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija defines it as a granary, Latin horreum.^[11][17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the room for the wheat of the tithes.^[12]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “tithe rent”.^[14]
• 1869 – the Academy defines the granary as a thing of the past.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (historical) A house or room where the grain, especially that of the tithes, was collected; a granary.^[4][18][1]
2. (historical) The tithe rent.^[4][18]

Word family

• cillero
• cillerero
• cillazgo
• cillerizo

Related words

• celda
• célula
• Latin cella
• Portuguese cela

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 2, 19
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cilla
4. ^ a b c 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. cilla
5. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. celda
6. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 779
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
8. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1571
9. ^ 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
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 Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 325
12. ^ 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. 602
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, s.v. cilla
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 201
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 174
16. ^ 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. cilla
17. ^ 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. 692
18. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cilla