granate

Forms

granate m or f (masculine and feminine plural granates)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Occitan granat, recorded about 1200 in Peire Cardenal;^[1] Corominas names borrowed from Catalan granat, recorded in the mid-13th century in Cerverí de Girona, as the other possible source.^[2][3] The DLE and Wiktionary give Occitan alone.^[4][1] The Occitan word continues Medieval Latin grānātus, a red precious stone in Du Cange, from grānum (“grain, seed”).^[1][5][6] The same stone is French grenat and Italian granato.^[7]

Where the name of the stone first arose is disputed.^[2] Ott derived it from the word for kermes, the scarlet dye, as in grana;^[8] Wartburg objected that the word would then have arisen in Occitan rather than in French, which lacks that word, and preferred grenade (“pomegranate”).^[2] Corominas notes that in French the stone is not named before the 14th century, though an adjective for an eye like a pomegranate is older.^[2] He adds that the form garnate of the Libro de Alexandre may point to a word formed in Mozarabic, which had granata and garnata “pomegranate”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the form garnate in the Libro de Alexandre (mid-13th century), naming a red gem.^[2][3] Aragonese inventories of 1381 and 1478 have granat.^[2]

Semantic evolution

A lapidary of about 1420 counts the granates as one of three species of jacinth, and a receipt of 1431 lists 1,342 granates de aljófar set in ornaments.^[9] Corominas's first record of the form granate is Florián de Ocampo in 1543, and inventories from Guatemala of 1583 list garlands of seed pearls and garnets.^[2][8]

Covarrubias in 1611 described it as a precious stone of the ruby kind, named for the colour of the pomegranate's grain, and Autoridades (1734) called it a low kind of ruby, quoting the price list of 1680, Cada onza de granates un real de a ocho, “each ounce of garnets, one piece of eight”.^[10][11] The Academy's edition of 1884 defined it chemically, as a double silicate of alumina and lime, and named the vinous granate de Bohemia, the orange oriental and the purple sirio.^[12]

As a colour adjective granate entered the Academy's dictionary only in the 20th century.^[2] Garzón recorded the adjective “dark red” in Argentina in 1910, and Segovia in 1911, while the Chilean purist Román held that one should say de color de granate, not vestido granate.^[13][14][15] Vox notes that the colour adjective does not vary in number: cortinas granate.^[16] Tagalog borrowed the word.^[1]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – garnate in the Libro de Alexandre.^[2][3]
• 1381 – granat in an Aragonese inventory.^[2]
• c. 1420 – a lapidary names the granates among the jacinths.^[9]
• 1543 – Florián de Ocampo uses the form granate.^[2]
• 1583 – first record from the Americas, in Guatemala City.^[8]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives the name from the colour of the pomegranate.^[10]
• 1734 – Autoridades calls it a low kind of ruby.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives a chemical definition and the varieties.^[12]
• 1910 – Garzón records the colour adjective in Argentina.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. garnet: a gemstone of double silicate of alumina and iron or other metal oxides, whose colour ranges from that of pomegranate seeds to red, black, green, yellow, violet and orange.^[4][1]
2. A dark red colour like that of some garnets.^[4][1]

Adjective

1. Of a dark red colour, maroon: Llevaba una bufanda granate.^[4][17]

Related words

• granada
• grano
• Latin granum
• French grenat

Usage notes

Granate almandino is a bright red or violet garnet much used in jewellery, and granate de Bohemia a wine-coloured one.^[4] Moliner records the old variant garnato.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 196
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. grano
4. ^ a b c d e 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. granate
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. granatus
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. grānātus
7. ^ 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, p. 2, 233
8. ^ a b c 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. granate
9. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. granate
10. ^ 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. 932
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 72
12. ^ 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. 539
13. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 229
14. ^ Segovia, Lisandro (1911), Diccionario de argentinismos, neologismos y barbarismos, Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Coni Hermanos, p. 220
15. ^ Román, Manuel Antonio (1901–1918), Diccionario de chilenismos y de otras voces y locuciones viciosas, 5 vols., Santiago de Chile: Imprenta de San José, p. 33
16. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. granate
17. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. granate