litera

Forms

litera f (plural literas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Catalan llitera, a derivative of llit (“bed”), which continues Latin lectus (“bed”).^[2][3][4][5] Wiktionary and García de Diego trace the Catalan word to Late Latin lectuāria, the feminine of an adjective meaning “of the bed”.^[1][6] Prat Sabater counts it among the Catalan loans in Spanish, formed with the suffix -era.^[7][8] Old Spanish had a native word of the same formation, lechera (“litter”), beside lechiga, from lectīca (“litter”).^[2][1]

The same derivative is Portuguese liteira, French litière, Italian lettiera and Occitan leitiera, which meant “bed”, “litter” or “bedstraw”.^[9][10] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie down”), perhaps as a verbal adjective *legʰtós (“lain upon”) or as a tu-stem *légʰtus.^[11][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek λέχος (lékhos, “bed”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌹𐌲𐌰𐌽 (ligan, “to lie”).^[11][1] The Academy's dictionaries from 1884 to 1899 derived the word straight from the Latin word for a litter, and Alemany in 1917 from the Late Latin feminine.^[12][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

DICCA-XV, the dictionary of 15th-century Castilian in the Crown of Aragon, has its first record from 1458, and notes a CORDE record of 1325.^[5] Corominas's first record is much later, in the Nueva Recopilación of the laws, 1600, where it is a litter for travel.^[2][3][15]

Semantic evolution

Until the 19th century a litera was a litter: in the Diccionario de Autoridades (1734) a comfortable carriage shaped like a sedan chair but longer, carried by two mules or horses with its poles fastened to two large saddles, in which the traveller could lie on mattresses.^[15] The chroniclers of the Americas compared the litters of the native lords to it, from 1565 in Yucatán.^[16] Domínguez in 1846 still called it one of the most comfortable ways to travel, much used in Galicia, and recorded the naval sense of a bed fixed in a ship's cabin; the Academy added this sense in 1869.^[17][18][19] Today it is above all a bunk, one of the narrow beds of ships, trains and barracks placed one above another, and the bunk bed made of two such beds; the litter is now a vehicle of the past.^[4][20][21] In the Dominican Republic it also means a stretcher, and, of a person, a good-for-nothing.^[22]

Timeline

• 1458 – the first record in DICCA-XV.^[5]
• 1565 – first record in the Americas, in Yucatán: a man carried en hombros de indios en una litera “on the shoulders of Indians in a litter”.^[16]
• 1600 – the Nueva Recopilación, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades describes the travelling litter.^[15]
• 1846 – Salvá and Domínguez record the bed in a ship's cabin.^[18][17]
• 1869 – the Academy adds the sense “fixed bed in a ship's cabin”.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bunk or berth: each of the narrow, simple beds of ships, trains, barracks or dormitories, usually set one above another to save space: Me tocó la litera de abajo en el vagón.^[4][21][1]
2. A bunk bed: a piece of furniture made of two or more beds stacked one on top of the other.^[20][21][1]
3. (historical) A litter: an old vehicle for one or two people, like the body of a coach, with two side poles fastened to two horses or mules, one in front and one behind.^[4][20]
4. (Dominican Republic) A stretcher (camilla), a portable bed.^[22]

Related words

• lecho
• lechiga
• Catalan llitera
• Latin lectus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 3, 616
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. lecho
4. ^ a b c d 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. litera
5. ^ 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. litera
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. lectuarius
7. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 61
8. ^ Prat Sabater, Marta (2003), Préstamos del catalán en el léxico español, doctoral thesis, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, p. 272
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4965
10. ^ Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. 2053
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 649
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 607
14. ^ Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1040
15. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4
16. ^ 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. litera
17. ^ a b Domínguez, Ramón Joaquín (1846–1847), Diccionario nacional o gran diccionario clásico de la lengua española, 2 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Léxico-Tipográfico de R. J. Domínguez, p. 2, 1098
18. ^ a b Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 666
19. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 470
20. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. litera
21. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. litera
22. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. litera