grada

grada¹ step, tier

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡɾada/, [ˈɡɾa.ð̞a]^[1]

Forms

grada f (plural gradas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the step is inherited from Old Spanish grada, a feminine form from Old Spanish grado (“step; rank”).^[2][1][3] Wiktionary compares the change of gender with Late Latin puncta beside punctus.^[1] Corominas lists it among the derivatives of grado “step, rank”, which is Latin gradus (“step, pace; stair; degree”), formed from gradior (“to step, walk”).^[4][3]

In the Cid the masculine still meant the steps before an altar, but Berceo already uses it only for “rank, dignity”, and the concrete sense passed to the feminine.^[4] The masculine is Portuguese grau, Catalan grau, Occitan gra and Italian grado; French degré was formed with a prefix.^[4][5][6] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Italic *graðus and Proto-Indo-European *gʰredʰ- (“to walk, go”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in Isaiah's sign to Hezekiah: ¿quieres que suba la sombra en las gradas del orologio d'Acaz .x. gradas o que torne atras .x. gradas?, “do you want the shadow to go up ten steps on the dial of Ahaz, or to go back ten steps?”.^[7][8] Corominas's first record is Berceo's Milagros; there and in his Santo Domingo the word means a step of a staircase.^[4][3][9]

Semantic evolution

In the prose of Alfonso X the word names the steps of an altar and the tiered seats of a Roman theatre.^[10] Corominas notes that it usually refers to a set of steps.^[4] Nebrija has grada para subir and the adverb grada a grada “step by step”.^[11] Autoridades in 1734 equates it with escalón, with quotations on the cardinals seated on the steps and the body of a sacrificed victim rolled down the steps of a temple, and adds the dais at the foot of an altar.^[12]

The seats in the theatres and bullrings appear in the Academy's edition of 1843, the shipbuilding slip in Salvá's dictionary of 1846, and the long step-like seat in the Academy's edition of 1884, which was also the first to give the etymology “de grado”.^[13][14][15] The DLE now also records the crowd that fills the stands.^[2]

In Ecuador grada came to mean a whole staircase, a usage Alemany called a barbarism; the DAMER records it for Costa Rica, Ecuador and Argentina, and the plural in Bolivia.^[16][17][18] In Mexico the plural can name the forecourt in front of a church.^[19]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy) speaks of the steps of the dial of Ahaz.^[7]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo uses the word for the steps of a staircase.^[3][4]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it for the tiered seats of a theatre.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records grada para subir and grada a grada.^[11]
• 1520 – first record from the Americas, in Cuba.^[20]
• 1734 – Autoridades equates it with escalón.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy adds the seats in theatres and bullrings.^[13]
• 1846 – Salvá records the slipway for building ships.^[14]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology “de grado”.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A step of a staircase; peldaño.^[2][1]
2. A seat in the form of a long continuous step.^[2]
3. The stands or terraces of a stadium or amphitheatre, taken together: Vimos el concierto desde la grada.^[2][1]
4. The crowd in the stands.^[2]
5. A dais placed at the foot of an altar.^[2]
6. (nautical) A sloping stone slipway on a shore or riverbank on which ships are built or repaired.^[2]
7. (in the plural) The flight of steps in front of the portico or façade of a large building.^[2]
8. (Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina) A staircase.^[18]

grada² harrow

Etymology tree of grada²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin crātis

Spanish grada

English crate

From the same root · grada²

Latin crāticula ← crātis

Pronunciation

• /ˈɡɾada/, [ˈɡɾa.ð̞a]^[1]

Forms

grada f (plural gradas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the harrow is inherited from Latin crātis (“wickerwork, hurdle; harrow”).^[21][2][1] In Asturias, Galicia and Portugal the word is Galician grade, Portuguese grade, closer to the Latin; compare Italian grata.^[21][1][22]

The Latin noun continues Proto-Italic *krāti- (“wickerwork”); de Vaan compares Old High German hurd (“hurdle”), but finds no Indo-European root of suitable form and meaning.^[23] Wiktionary gives Proto-Indo-European *kréh₂-tis “fenced handiwork” as probable, with a substrate origin as a possibility.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas dates the word to 1490, in the senses “harrow” and “grille in a convent of nuns”;^[1] Wiktionary names the source, Alonso Fernández de Palencia's Universal vocabulario en latín y romance.^[21][1]

Semantic evolution

For Covarrubias in 1611 grada was the grille of a convent through which the nuns spoke with their relatives and other visitors approved by the abbess, and he derived it from Latin crates, a lattice of wood or iron.^[24] Autoridades in 1734 also explained this sense from crates, and noted that in Galicia the word named a square wooden frame like a large grill, used to level the ploughed ground.^[12] Terreros described the Galician tool as a square wooden rake with wooden or iron teeth.^[25]

The Academy's edition of 1843 still labelled the tool Galician and distinguished the grada de dientes, with teeth, from the grada de cota, with branches that leave the soil smooth; by 1869 the regional label was gone.^[13][26] In 1884 the Academy gave the harrow an entry of its own, deriving it from German kratzen or a Greek word for “scraper”, while the convent grille stayed under grada “step”.^[15] The DLE now has the convent grille and the harrow, with the grada de discos among its kinds.^[2]

Timeline

• 1490 – first record, in Palencia's Universal vocabulario.^[21][1]
• 1611 – Covarrubias describes the grille of a nuns' convent.^[24]
• 1734 – Autoridades records the harrow as a Galician word.^[12]
• 1843 – the Academy distinguishes the grada de dientes and the grada de cota.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the harrow an entry of its own, with a German or Greek etymology.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The grille or locutorio of a convent of nuns.^[2][1]
2. A harrow: a nearly square frame of wood or iron, like a large grill, used to break up and level ploughed land before sowing.^[2][1][27]

Word family

• gradar