nasa

Forms

nasa f (plural nasas)^[1] Old Spanish wrote nassa, the spelling still used by Autoridades.^[2][3] García de Diego records naza in Navarre and nalsa in Zamora and Salamanca.^[4] Puerto Rico also has a masculine naso.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nassa (“wicker fish trap”).^[6][7][1][4]

The same Latin word is Portuguese nassa, Galician nasa, Catalan nansa, French nasse and Italian nassa.^[8][9] Coromines explains the ⟨n⟩ of the Catalan form as nasality spreading from the preceding indefinite article.^[10]

De Vaan reconstructs *nasso- and, if the root etymology is correct, a PIE *nHd-to- (“tied, knotted”), with Celtic cognates meaning “to bind” and the Germanic word for “net”, but notes that it is disputed which forms belong together.^[11] Wiktionary compares *natją (“net”).^[1] The OLD compares nectō (“to bind”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Romance Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250) has a clause Del que furtare ret o nassa “Of him who steals a net or a fish trap”.^[2] The Fuero de Alcaraz (before 1296) and the Fuero de Alarcón have the same penalty for stealing a fisherman's net, his catch or his nassa.^[2] The BDELC's own first date is 1490.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias described it, in Latin, as a wicker vessel that fish can enter but not leave.^[13] Autoridades defined it as a round net closed with a hoop at the mouth and narrowing like a sleeve, and also as a large basket or jar for bread and flour, a sense it took from Nebrija.^[3] Terreros adds that in Asturias a trap of this kind made of wicker was called trullón.^[14]

The Academy's 1817 edition added the fishermen's narrow-mouthed basket for the catch and marked the bread basket as obsolete;^[15] the 1869 edition added the trap of woven reeds used in the Mediterranean,^[16] and in 1899 the trap became a cylinder of reeds with an inward funnel at one end.^[17] The DLE keeps all four senses today.^[7]

In the Americas the word appears in Guatemala in 1568, of traps cast in the sea, and in Mexico City in 1571 both for fishing and for wheat.^[18] Popular Spanish of Bolivia and Argentina uses it for the nose, Honduras for the mouth, and rural Puerto Rico for a long pole with a container for picking avocados.^[19] In Leonese it is a net for trout and a straw container for pulses.^[20]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes punishes the theft of a nassa.^[2]
• before 1296 – the Fuero de Alcaraz has the same clause.^[2]
• 1376 – manuscripts of Juan Fernández de Heredia's works have the word.^[21]
• 1490 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[6]
• 1568 – first record from the Americas, in Guatemala.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from Latin nassa.^[13]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the fishermen's basket and marks the bread basket as obsolete.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin nassa.^[22]
• 1899 – the trap is defined as a cylinder of reeds with an inward funnel.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fish trap: a cylinder of woven reeds with an inward-pointing funnel at one end and a lid at the other for emptying it.^[7][23][1]
2. A similar trap made of a net bag held open by wooden hoops.^[7][23]
3. A narrow-mouthed basket in which fishermen put their catch.^[7][24]
4. A basket or jar-shaped vessel for keeping bread, flour and the like.^[7][23]
5. (Bolivia, Argentina, colloquial) The nose.^[19]

Related words

• nansa
• Latin nassa

Usage notes

Nasa is also the name of an Amerindian people of the Cauca department of Colombia and of their language, taken from the people's own name.^[25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. nasa
3. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 4, 649
4. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. art. 4552
5. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. nasa
6. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nasa
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. nasa
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5838
9. ^ Segura Munguía, Santiago (2001), Nuevo diccionario etimológico latín-español y de las voces derivadas, Bilbao: Universidad de Deusto, p. 485
10. ^ 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. 5, 876
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ 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. 1159
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, 649
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 595
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 532
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 687
18. ^ 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. nasa
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
20. ^ 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. nasa
21. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
22. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 733
23. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. nasa
24. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. nasa
25. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org