jarra

Forms

jarra f (plural jarras)^[1] Corriente lists the Galician xarra, the Leonese xiarra and the Aragonese charra and cherra.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Andalusian Arabic جرة (ǧárra, “jar with a handle”), from Arabic جرة (ǧarrah, “earthen vessel”).^[3][4][2][1] Eguílaz cites the Latin equivalents hydria (“water jar”) and vas figlinum (“earthen vessel”) from the Arabic dictionaries of Raymond Martin and Freytag.^[5] The same Arabic word gave Portuguese jarra, Catalan gerra, Galician xarra, Italian giara and French jarre.^[2][6][1] In 13th-century Catalan documents the form with ⟨a⟩ occurs beside the one with ⟨e⟩;^[7] Coromines puts the two vowels down to local or social variants in the Arabic of Spain, of which Catalan generalised one and Castilian the other.^[8]

The French word first appears around 1200 in the Crusader kingdom of Jerusalem, and seems to have reached France through Italian and Provençal.^[9] The masculine jarro, first recorded about 1400, is derived from it.^[4][6] Bénaben discusses the pair with other Spanish masculine and feminine names of things.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Calila e Dimna of 1251, known from a copy of about 1400: a man keeps honey and butter in a jarra hung at the head of his bed.^[4][11] Earlier CDH hits, from 1240, are the word in the Latin or Catalan toll lists of James I of Aragon.^[11]

Semantic evolution

In medieval texts the jar held oil, honey and other goods;^[7] Seville's port regulations of 1302 tax goods carried in jarras.^[11] Covarrubias in 1611 described it as a pot-bellied vessel with two handles, and told the legend of the Order of the Jar, founded, he says, by King García of Navarre after he found an image of the Virgin with a jar of lilies in a cave.^[12] The Diccionario de Autoridades kept the two handles as what set the jarra apart from the jarro, and Terreros gave the jarro a single handle.^[13][14] It also recorded the phrase en jarra or en jarras, with the arms bent and the hands on the waist, from Quevedo.^[13]

Today the word names a jug or pitcher of glass, china or earthenware, and the drink it holds.^[3][7] It also means a beer mug, and in Mexico it is used colloquially for drunkenness or an alcoholic drink.^[15][16] In the sherry cellars of Jerez a jarra is a tin vessel of 12.5 litres used for racking wine.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 1240 – Iarras in a Latin or Catalan toll list granted to Valencia by James I, not yet a Castilian text.^[11]
• 1251 – the Calila e Dimna, the first record in a Castilian text (in a copy of about 1400).^[4][11][17]
• 1302 – the port regulations of Seville tax goods brought in jarras.^[11]
• c. 1400 – the masculine jarro is first recorded.^[4]
• 1513 – first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias tells the legend of the Order of the Jar.^[12]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records the phrase en jarras.^[13]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the Arabic etymology.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jug or pitcher: a vessel of earthenware, china or glass with a wide neck and mouth and one or two handles: Trae una jarra de agua fría.^[3][7][1]
2. The liquid a jug holds: Entre los tres se bebieron una jarra de limonada.^[3]
3. A beer mug or stein.^[15][1]
4. (Jerez) A tin vessel of 12.5 litres used for racking wine in the cellars.^[3][7]
5. (historical) An old order of chivalry of the Kingdom of Aragon, whose badge was a jar of lilies on a gold collar.^[3][7]
6. (Mexico, colloquial) An alcoholic drink; drunkenness (borrachera).^[16][15]

Word family

• jarro
• jarrón
• jarrero
• jarrear

Related words

• Portuguese jarra
• Catalan gerra
• French jarre
• Italian giara

Usage notes

De jarras, en jarra or en jarras means with the hands on the hips and the elbows bent outwards: con los brazos en jarras.^[3][13] García de Diego also records a Cantabrian jarra “sledge”, which he derives from an Arabic word for dragging.^[20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Corriente, Federico; Pereira, Christophe; Vicente, Ángeles (2019), Dictionnaire des emprunts ibéro-romans: emprunts à l'arabe et aux langues du monde islamique (Encyclopédie linguistique d'Al-Andalus 3), Berlin: De Gruyter, p. s.v. algerra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. jarra
4. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jarra
5. ^ Eguílaz y Yanguas, Leopoldo de (1886), Glosario etimológico de las palabras españolas (castellanas, catalanas, gallegas, mallorquinas, portuguesas, valencianas y bascongadas) de origen oriental, Granada: La Lealtad, p. 455
6. ^ a b Dozy, Reinhart; Engelmann, W. H. (1869), Glossaire des mots espagnols et portugais dérivés de l'arabe, 2nd ed., Leyde: Brill, p. 308
7. ^ a b c d e f g Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. jarra
8. ^ 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. 4, 484
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. jarre
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. jarra
11. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. jarra
12. ^ 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. 1012
13. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 318
14. ^ 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, 378
15. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. jarra
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. jarra
17. ^ 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. jarra
18. ^ 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. jarra
19. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 614
20. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2083