costa

costa¹ cost

Etymology tree of costa¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin stō

Aromanian stau

Italian stare

Spanish estar

Latin cōnstō

French coûter

Italian costare

Spanish costar

Spanish costa

From the same root · costa¹

French étage ← stō

Italian restare ← stō

Latin astō ← stō

Latin circumstō ← stō

Latin contrāstō ← stō

Latin distō ← stō

Latin exstō ← stō

Latin īnstō ← stō

Latin obstō ← stō

Latin perstō ← stō

Latin praestō ← stō

Latin prosto ← stō

Latin restō ← stō

Latin stabilis ← stō

Latin statim ← stō

Latin statiō ← stō

Latin statīvus ← stō

Latin statūra ← stō

Latin substō ← stō

Latin superstō ← stō

Spanish estancia ← estar

Latin cōnstāns ← cōnstō

French coût ← coûter

Pronunciation

• /ˈkosta/, [ˈkos.t̪a]^[1]

Forms

costa f (plural costas)^[1] Old Spanish also had the diphthonged cuesta and cuosta in this sense.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for cost is a postverbal noun from Spanish costar.^[4][1][5] The verb costar continues Latin constō (“to stand firm; to cost”) (infinitive constare).^[5][6] It is often said that the verb's stem vowel was at first undiphthonged and took its ⟨ue⟩ from the noun cuesta;^[6][7] Corominas thinks rather that the verb had an open o from the start, and that the vowel of the postverbal nouns, this one, costo and coste, is analogical.^[5] The same postverbal noun is Portuguese custa; Catalan costa in this sense may be postverbal or borrowed from Castilian.^[6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is in Berceo: in the Vida de San Millán (c. 1230) the saint's brothers believed they could keep him sin costa “at no cost”.^[5][8][9] The CDH has it a little earlier in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), in the phrase razon de costa dela carrera “the cost of the journey”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Old Spanish used it for the price of a thing and for expenses, especially the upkeep of a worker.^[8][5] Covarrubias in 1611 explains it as the price of a thing and derives it from constare.^[10] Autoridades adds a figurative sense, labour or effort, as in a costa de su paciencia “at the cost of his patience”.^[11] The Academy listed a toda costa “at any cost” and condenar en costas “to order to pay the costs of a lawsuit” in 1817.^[12] Terreros notes that the usual word for the price was coste, and costas in law.^[13] Today the singular is a synonym of costo, and the plural means legal costs.^[4]

Timeline

• 1218–1250 – costa dela carrera in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes.^[9]
• c. 1230 – Berceo's sin costa.^[5][9]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives the Latin sumptus and impensa.^[14][15]
• 1509 – first record in the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[16]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it as the price of a thing.^[10]
• 1817 – the Academy's dictionary lists a toda costa and condenar en costas.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. cost, the price paid for something (synonym of costo).^[4][1]
2. (law, in the plural) The costs of a lawsuit: Lo condenaron a pagar las costas.^[4]
3. a costa de: at the price of, through the effort of; at the expense of: Vive a costa de sus padres.^[4]
4. a toda costa: at any cost, without limit of effort or expense.^[4]

costa² coast

Pronunciation

• /ˈkosta/, [ˈkos.t̪a]^[1]

Forms

costa f (plural costas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the coast is borrowed from Galician costa or Catalan costa, from Latin costa (“rib; side”).^[4][1][17] The Latin noun took the sense “side of a mountain, slope” and then “seashore” in Romance.^[18][19][20] In Castilian the inherited form is cuesta “slope”, with the diphthong from stressed ŏ;^[21] Corominas holds that the coastal word shows by its lack of a diphthong that it was brought in from the speech of the coasts, Andalusian Mozarabic, Catalan, Galician-Portuguese and western Leonese, which covered nearly all of the Hispanic shores.^[18][22][21] Vox calls it inherited, probably through a dialect.^[23]

The Latin word is continued in Portuguese costa, French côte, Italian costa and Romanian coastă.^[24][1] De Vaan regards it as isolated: the usual comparison with Old Church Slavonic кость (kostĭ, “bone”) does not work if the Slavic word goes back to the root of os (“bone”).^[25][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The coastal sense is first found in Castilian at the beginning of the 14th century, in the Libro del caballero Zifar, and in a law of 1409, only in the phrase costa de mar “on the seacoast”; it reappears in a document of 1492 and in Ocampo's chronicle of 1543.^[18][22] Alfonso X's General estoria has the inherited form a cuesta de “beside”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 explains the name by the curve of the shore, like a rib, and gives ir costa a costa “to sail along the coast” and hombre de la costa “a coast-dweller”.^[10] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 also has a shoemaker's tool for smoothing soles called costa and an obsolete sense “rib”.^[12][17] Nautical Spanish has many phrases with the word, such as costa firme “mainland” and dar a la costa “to run aground”.^[26][27]

In Argentina and Venezuela costa is also the strip of land along the foot of a mountain range, and in the Río de la Plata the bank of a river or lake.^[28][29] In the Canaries it is the warm lowland between the sea and about 200 metres, and on some islands the common pasture.^[30][31] Place names such as Costa Rica and the Catalan Costa Brava (1908) contain it.^[1][32]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – first record in the coastal sense, in the Zifar.^[18][22]
• 1409 – costa de mar in a law.^[18]
• 1492 – costear “to sail along the coast”.^[22]
• 1611 – Covarrubias explains the name by the curve of the shore.^[10]
• 1645 – costas as pastures in a document from La Gomera.^[31]
• 1780 – the derivatives costanero and costero.^[22]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology from Latin.^[33]

Meanings

Noun

1. The coast, the land along the sea, and the zone near it: Pasamos el verano en la costa.^[17][23][1]
2. The shore of a large river or lake.^[23][1]
3. A shoemaker's wooden tool for smoothing and polishing the edges of soles.^[17]
4. (obsolete) A rib.^[17][12]
5. (Argentina, Venezuela) A strip of land along the foot of a mountain range.^[28][23]
6. (Canary Islands) The warm lowland between the sea and about 200 metres; on some islands, common pasture.^[30]

Word family

• costanero
• costeño
• costero
• costear
• guardacostas