meda

Forms

meda f (plural medas)^[1] Regional derivatives of the same word include Cantabrian madujo, modujo and boduco, Galician medouco, medela and medeiro, and Zamoran medero, all meaning “haystack”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mēta (“cone; conical heap”).^[3][1][2] Its learned doublet is meta “goal, finishing line”.^[1][2]

The same word gives “haystack” in Portuguese, Galician, Asturian and Leonese, all spelt as in Spanish,^[2] and the REW lists Italian meta “haystack”, Sardinian meda “heap”, Old French moie and Portuguese meda, as well as the borrowed Basque meta and German Miete.^[4] Le Men reports a competing view, which he takes from Corominas's article on médano: a Celtic word related to Old Irish methos (“boundary mark”) rather than the Latin one.^[5]

The Latin noun meant a cone, the conical turning post of the circus and a limit.^[6][7] Cato already used it for a stack of corn, and Medieval Latin kept that sense.^[8][9] De Vaan derives it from *mētā and, if the post was first a mark for measuring, from Proto-Indo-European *meh₁- (“to measure”).^[6] He rejects an older link with a root meaning “to exchange” as unconvincing.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Diccionario de Autoridades of 1734 is the first dictionary to record meda, as a word of Galicia meaning the same as hacina “stack of sheaves”.^[10] In 1745 Martín Sarmiento described the people of the Galician coast stacking seaweed in medas to dry it for manure.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The Academy kept the word as a Galician provincialism through the 19th century.^[12][13] In 1899 it redefined it as a rick on four pillars in which grain is stored with its straw.^[14] The current dictionary labels it as used in Asturias, Galicia, León and Zamora, for a cone-shaped stack of sheaves of grain, straw or hay.^[3][15]

In León the meda is the conical pile of sheaves left on the threshing floor until threshing, which protects the grain from rain; in some places the word is used only for rye, and wheat is stacked in a morena.^[5] In the Canary Islands, where the historical dictionary of Canarian Spanish takes the word from Portuguese,^[16] it names a roofed stack with the ears turned inward, and on El Hierro also a festive song in which two singers improvise couplets in turn.^[17]

Timeline

• 1734 – the Diccionario de Autoridades records meda as a Galician word for a stack of sheaves.^[10]
• 1745 – Martín Sarmiento writes of medas of seaweed on the Galician coast.^[11]
• 1749 – a Canary Islands complaint mentions a meda of grain damaged by sheep.^[16]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary first derives it from Latin meta, a cone-shaped stack.^[18]
• 1899 – the Academy defines it as a rick on four pillars.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Asturias, Galicia, León, Zamora) A cone-shaped stack of sheaves of grain, or of straw or hay: Levantaron la meda junto a la era.^[3][15]
2. (Canary Islands) A stack of sheaves built with the ears inward and topped with a small roof against the rain.^[17]
3. (El Hierro) A festive folk song in which two singers improvise couplets in turn, answered by a chorus.^[17]

Related words

• meta
• Portuguese meda

Usage notes

The earliest hits for the spelling meda in the CDH, from the 13th century on, are the name of Media, the land of the Medes, or the feminine of medo “Mede”, not this word.^[11][19]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 4312
3. ^ 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. meda
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5540
5. ^ a b Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. meda
6. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre
9. ^ Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 524
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. meda
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 563
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 499
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 646
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. meda
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. meda
17. ^ a b c Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. meda
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 689
19. ^ 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. meda