ducha

Forms

ducha f (plural duchas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French douche, which is from Italian doccia (“water pipe; shower”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas takes the Italian noun as a back-formation from doccione (“large pipe”), from Latin ductiō (“conveyance of water”), a noun of dūcō (“to lead”).^[2][3][5] The DHLF explains the Italian word for “shower” as a noun from docciare (“to pour in a jet”); that verb comes from the older noun meaning “pipe”, which perhaps itself comes from the word for “large pipe”, whose ending was taken for the augmentative suffix -one.^[6] Wiktionary also gives a Vulgar Latin *ducea, which Prati had proposed.^[1][7]

In Latin the noun meant the conveying of water and the right to draw it off.^[8] The Italian noun means “pipe” from the 13th century and “shower” from 1499–1573.^[9] French took it about 1580, in Montaigne's travel journal, still in the Italian form.^[6] In French the word means “pipe” from the 16th century and “shower” already in 1640.^[2] The same French word gave douche, Dusche and dutxa.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to the Academy's dictionary of 1884; the 1843 edition did not have it.^[2][3] There it is a jet of water directed with force at the diseased part of the body in medicinal baths.^[10] Earlier, Pichardo's Cuban dictionary had already recorded it as a French word much used in Havana for the apparatus in which one stands under a jet of water.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The word began as a term of hydrotherapy and became the everyday word for washing under falling water, for the device and for the room that holds it.^[2][4][12] In Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay it also names a bathroom with a shower and no bathtub.^[4] Corominas notes that in parts of the Americas such as Argentina people long said baño de lluvia, after English shower bath, instead.^[2] The first American record in Boyd-Bowman's lexicon is from Mexico in 1935.^[13] Figuratively, una ducha de agua fría is news that suddenly dampens someone's hopes.^[14]

Timeline

• 13th century – Italian doccia “pipe”.^[9]
• 1499–1573 – Italian doccia “shower”, in the Ricettario fiorentino.^[9]
• c. 1580 – French takes the word from Italian.^[6]
• 1640 – French douche “shower”.^[2]
• 1875 – Pichardo records it in Havana as a French word.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary, the first record in Spain, as a jet of water in medicinal baths.^[2][10]
• 1917 – Alemany separates it from the older ducha “stripe”.^[15]
• 1935 – the first record in Boyd-Bowman's American lexicon, from Mexico.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shower, the act of washing under falling water: Me di una ducha antes de cenar.^[4][1]
2. Water that falls on the body as rain or in a jet, to clean or refresh it or for medical treatment.^[4][12]
3. The device or installation for taking a shower.^[4][1]
4. A shower tray, the basin that collects the water.^[4]
5. A room or place with a shower.^[4]
6. (Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay) A bathroom with a shower but no bathtub.^[4]

Word family

• duchar
• duchazo

Related words

• acueducto
• conducir
• ducho
• French douche
• Italian doccia

Usage notes

The DLE has another ducha, from Latin ducta (“led”): a stripe in a fabric, and in La Mancha the strip of land that a reaper cuts walking in a straight line.^[4][16][17] That is the word of the medieval fueros, as in non finquen la ducha començada (1218–c. 1250); other medieval records of ducha in the CDH are the feminine of the adjective ducho.^[18][19]

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, 525
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ducha
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. ducha
5. ^ a b Segura Munguía, Santiago (2014), Lexicón etimológico y semántico del latín y de las voces actuales que proceden de raíces latinas o griegas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 199
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2367
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 402
11. ^ a b Pichardo, Esteban (1875), Diccionario provincial casi-razonado de vozes y frases cubanas, 4th ed., La Habana: Imprenta El Trabajo
12. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. ducha
13. ^ a b 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. ducha
14. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. ducha
15. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
17. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2368
18. ^ Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. ducha
19. ^ 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