pala

Forms

pala f (countable and uncountable, plural palas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish pala, inherited from Latin pāla (“spade, shovel”).^[2][1][3][4] The same word is Portuguese pá, Galician pa, Asturian pala, Aragonese pala, Catalan pala, French pelle and Italian pala.^[5][6] The noun is common to all the Western Romance languages.^[3]

The Latin noun named a long-handled spade.^[7] Varro already linked it with pangō (“to fix, drive in”), and de Vaan derives it from Proto-Italic *pāg-slo- (“spade, pole”), from the root of that verb, Proto-Indo-European *peh₂ǵ- (“to attach”).^[8][9][1] Gómez de Silva gives the same Indo-European source, a word for “stake”, and refers to palo and paz.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in the CDH is the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), where the fine for borrowing tools is set: Del que aprestamo tomare aradro o pala, “of whoever borrows a plough or a spade”.^[11] A Castilian inventory of 1268 lists duas palas de era, “two shovels for the threshing floor”, beside forks and winnowing tools.^[11] Corominas dated the word from Juan Ruiz, about 1335.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Palencia and Nebrija already record special senses: the shovel for winnowing grain on the threshing floor and the blade of an oar.^[3] Autoridades describes the wooden farm shovel, the iron fire shovel of kitchens and the long baker's peel.^[12] In the ball game the pala was a thick board for striking the ball.^[13][3]

Because the bat was used to block the opponent's strokes, in thieves' slang the pala was the thief who stands in front of a victim to block his view.^[3][14] From there came “cover, protection”, frequent in Cervantes and Mateo Alemán, which passed into Portuguese.^[3] In Puerto Rico pala means an accomplice, and also influence or an influential person who helps one get a job or a loan.^[15][16][17] In Aragon pala is also a smooth, steep mountain slope, a sense known from the Pyrenees to the Alps, which Corominas explains from the Latin word, against those who sought a pre-Roman origin.^[3] The derivative paleto, first a fallow deer with broad antlers, later came to mean “rustic, boor”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes lists pala with the plough.^[11]
• 1268 – an inventory lists palas de era.^[11]
• c. 1335 – Juan Ruiz, the DCECH's first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija records the derivative traspalar.^[4]
• 1516 – first record from the Americas, a wooden shovel in Puerto Rico.^[18]
• 1525 – first record of paleta.^[4]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's thieves' vocabulary defines hacer pala.^[14]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades describes the farm, kitchen and baker's shovels.^[12]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin pala.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A shovel or spade: a tool made of a wooden board or iron plate on a long handle.^[2][1]
2. The iron blade of a hoe, axe or similar tool.^[2]
3. The broad part of various objects resembling a shovel, such as the blade of an oar or a propeller.^[2][1]
4. The metal setting in which a jeweller mounts stones.^[2][1]
5. A tanner's blade for fleshing hides.^[2]
6. The vamp or upper of a shoe, covering the top of the foot.^[2][1]
7. An upper incisor.^[2]
8. Each of the four teeth a colt sheds at about thirty months.^[2]
9. Each of the flat joints of the stem of the prickly pear (nopal).^[2]
10. Each of the two leaves of a hinge.^[2]
11. The flat part of an epaulette, or a shoulder board showing rank.^[2]
12. (colloquial) cunning or a trick to get or find out something.^[2]
13. (colloquial) Skill, especially of a good pelota player.^[2]
14. A wooden bat or paddle used in ball games.^[20][1]
15. (Puerto Rico) Influence; an influential person who helps someone.^[17][16]

Word family

• palada
• palazo
• palear
• palero
• palería
• paletilla
• paleto
• traspalar
• palera

Related words

• paleta
• palo
• Latin pāla
• Portuguese pá
• Catalan pala

Usage notes

Corominas suspects that pala “cover, protection” of thieves' slang (about 1600) may be a different word, of Romani origin, comparing a Sanskrit word for “protector”; it could not be one if it is the pala among Juan Ruiz's names for the go-between.^[4][3] Corta pala is a colloquial term for someone who is not clever at something.^[2] The Catalan dictionary of Alcover and Moll has a second pala, the silk cover laid over the objects on an altar.^[21]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. pala
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 344
4. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pala
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6154
6. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. s.v. pala
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pāla
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. pāla
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Gómez de Silva, Guido (1988), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua española, México: Fondo de Cultura Económica / El Colegio de México, p. 518
11. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. pala
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 82
13. ^ Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 627
14. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 190
15. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1999), Vocabulario de Puerto Rico, critical ed. by Humberto López Morales, Madrid: Arco/Libros (1st ed. 1937), p. 268
16. ^ a b Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. pala
17. ^ 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. pala
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. pala
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. 775
20. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pala
21. ^ Alcover, Antoni M.; Moll, Francesc de B. (1930–1962), Diccionari català-valencià-balear, 10 vols., Palma de Mallorca: Moll, p. s.v. pala