espelta

Forms

espelta f (plural espeltas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Late Latin spelta (“spelt”).^[2][1][3][4] Corominas notes that the treatment of the stressed ⟨e⟩, which did not become a diphthong, shows that it is not a popular Castilian word, and suggests that it came from Late Latin or from its descendant Catalan espelta;^[5][6] Prat Sabater counts it among the possible Catalanisms, with Catalan as the only Romance source proposed.^[5][6] The Catalan word is recorded from 1113.^[7]

The Latin word is late, and is generally taken as a borrowing from Germanic: Wiktionary derives it from *spelta, from *spiltaz, and Coromines compares spelza and the Germanic verb for “to split”.^[1][7][8] The origin of the Germanic word itself is unknown.^[1]

The Latin word also gave Italian spelta and Old French espelte, later French épeautre; Portuguese espelta, recorded from 1873, was taken from Catalan.^{[9][8][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Castilian translation of Palladius's work on agriculture (1385), in a list of crops to be sown in dry soil: Trigo Çeuada Espelta Guixes Jodias “wheat, barley, spelt, vetch, beans”.^[12][13] Corominas, as reported by DICCA-XV, dated it from 1490, in Alfonso de Palencia's vocabulary.^[4][12]

Semantic evolution

In the 15th century the word appears in medical texts, in lists of grains and flours.^[12] Nebrija defined it as “a kind of wheat”, and Percyvall translated it into English as “beere corne”.^[14][15] Laguna's Dioscorides identified the Greek zea with what was commonly called espelta.^[16] Autoridades described a kind of wheat like escanda, in two varieties with one or two grains in each husk, and the Academy kept this description until 1843.^[16][17] From 1869 the Academy defined it simply as a kind of escanda, and the current dictionary refers it to escanda.^[18][2][19]

Timeline

• 1385 – the translation of Palladius's agriculture lists espelta among the crops.^[12][13]
• c. 1450 – the Arte complida de cirugía lists it among cold seeds.^[12]
• 1490 – Alfonso de Palencia's Universal vocabulario.^[12][4]
• 1495 – Nebrija defines it as a kind of wheat.^[14][12]
• 1732 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes its two varieties.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first gives the etymology from Latin.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. spelt: a hulled wheat, Triticum spelta; a variety of escanda.^[2][1][19]

Related words

• Latin spelta
• Catalan espelta

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. espelta
3. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 6259
4. ^ a b c Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. espelta
5. ^ a b Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 109
6. ^ a b Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 111
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. 3, 637
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. épeautre
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. spelta
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 1417
11. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. espelta
12. ^ 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
13. ^ a b Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
14. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 350
15. ^ Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 137
16. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 3, 598
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 318
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 332
19. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. espelta
20. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 458