orlar

Forms

orlar (first-person singular present orlo, first-person singular preterite orlé, past participle orlado)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Spanish orla (“border”) + -ar.^[2][3][4] orla probably comes from a Vulgar Latin diminutive *ōrula of Latin ōra (“edge, border; coast”); the same diminutive gave Portuguese orla, Catalan orla, Occitan orla and Old French orle, while Italian orlo comes from the neuter *ōrulum.^[4][3]

Wiktionary and the REW instead start from a Vulgar Latin verb *ōrulāre, the source also of Italian orlare, French ourler and Portuguese orlar;^[1][5][6] García de Diego also sets up this verb.^[1][5][6] French had it as orler by 1160.^[7]

The origin of the Latin noun is unknown;^[1] Wiktionary compares a possible *h₁erh₂- (“border, line”).^[1] The OLD takes it as a collective formation beside ōs (“mouth”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle comes first, in the Libro de Alexandre (1240–1250, in an early 15th-century copy): a tomb todo de buenos viersos en derredor orlado “bordered all round with good verses”.^[9][4][3] The infinitive is first recorded by Nebrija, who translates it with a Latin phrase for embroidering a border.^[10][3]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades defines the verb as trimming a garment or other thing with an ornament along its edge, and also uses it figuratively of towers that ring a city.^[11] Terreros adds the heraldic use and gives French orler or ourler as the equivalent.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1817 has both senses, “to trim with a border” and, in heraldry, “to place the orle on a shield”, and the DLE keeps them.^[13][2] Moliner adds the sense of something forming a border round a thing.^[14]

In the Americas the participle is used in Santo Domingo in 1551 of a sword edged with teeth or blades.^[15] In Honduras and Nicaragua the verb means to pleat the edge of a shoe's upper.^[16]

Timeline

• 1240–1250 – the participle orlado in the Libro de Alexandre.^[9][3]
• 1490 – the noun orla.^[3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the verb.^[10][3]
• 1551 – first record from the Americas, in Santo Domingo.^[15]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the heraldic sense.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. To trim or adorn a garment or other thing with an ornament along its edge: Orló el mantel con una cinta azul.^[2][14]
2. (heraldry) To place an orle on a shield.^[2]
3. Of a thing: to form a border round something.^[14][1]
4. (Honduras, Nicaragua) To pleat the edge of a shoe's upper.^[16]

Related words

• orla
• orilla
• Latin ōra
• Italian orlare
• French ourler

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. orlar
3. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. orla
4. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 297
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. *ōrulāre
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. *orulare
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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. orlar
10. ^ a b Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 390
11. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 58
12. ^ 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, 724
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 620
14. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. orlar
15. ^ 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. orlar
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. orlar