pila

pila¹ pile; battery

Pronunciation

• /ˈpila/, [ˈpi.la]^[1]

Forms

pila f (plural pilas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a pile is probably borrowed from Catalan pila (“heap”), from Latin pīla (“pillar, column”).^[2][3][4] Corominas finds no record of it in the medieval texts, in Nebrija, Covarrubias or the Quijote, while the Catalan word is old and popular; he thinks it was taken, like Portuguese pilha, from Catalan or Gallo-Romance as a commercial term for a stack of goods.^[2] The DLE and Wiktionary derive it from Latin directly.^[5][1]

The battery is a transferred use of “pillar”: the electric pile invented by Volta in 1799 was a column of plates.^[2][6] The same Latin word is French pile “bridge pier; pile” and Italian pila “pier”.^[7] The origin of the Latin word is unknown, and it is probably unrelated to the word for a mortar.^[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DICCA-XV records the word in the sense “heap” from 1497.^[4] The earliest records from the Americas are from Mexico: una pila de sal “a pile of salt” in 1535 and una pila de moneda de cobre “a pile of copper coins” in 1545.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Corominas has it in Aragon at the end of the 16th century and in Castile only in the Diccionario de Autoridades, which defines it as a heap of things placed one on another, of wool or bacon, and as all the wool shorn for one owner in a year.^[2][3] It was never a literary word, but it is common in speech everywhere; in Cuba it is used freely for “a lot”, as in una pila de años.^[2] The battery sense followed Volta's invention of 1799.^[2] In the Canaries a pila was a team of wrestlers.^[10] In several Latin American countries pila means a person's energy or vitality.^[11]

Timeline

• 1497 – first record in DICCA-XV, in the sense “heap”.^[4]
• 1535 – una pila de sal in a document from Mexico.^[9]
• late 16th century – first record in Aragon.^[2][3]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades, the first record in Castile.^[2]
• 1799 – Volta invents the electric pile, later called pila.^[2]
• 1892 – a Canarian text uses pila for a team of wrestlers.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pile or stack of things placed one on another: Dejó una pila de platos en la mesa.^[5][1]
2. (colloquial) A great deal (montón): Hace una pila de tiempo que no la veo.^[5][1]
3. All the wool shorn in one year for one owner.^[5][12]
4. A battery, a small device that turns chemical energy into electricity.^[5][1]
5. (architecture) A pier supporting two adjacent arches or spans of a bridge.^[5][12]
6. (heraldry) A pile, a triangle with its base at the top of the shield.^[5][1]
7. (Latin America, colloquial) Energy, vitality.^[11]

pila² basin; font

Etymology tree of pila²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin pīlum

Latin pīlus

Aromanian per

French poil

Spanish pelo

Latin pīla

Spanish pila

English pile

From the same root · pila²

Latin pilō ← pīlus

Latin pilōsus ← pīlus

Latin prīmipīlus ← pīlus

Latin pilula ← pīla

English stockpile ← pile

Pronunciation

• /ˈpila/, [ˈpi.la]^[1]

Forms

pila f (plural pilas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for a basin is inherited from Latin pīla (“mortar; fuller's vat”), a derivative of pīnsō (“to pound, crush”).^{[2][13][5][1]} Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Italic *pistlā and Proto-Indo-European *peys- (“to crush”), the root of pīlum (“pestle”) as well.^[1]

The same Latin word is Portuguese pia, Italian pila “trough”, Romanian piuă “mortar” and Catalan pica.^[1][14][15] The Portuguese form shows the regular loss of Latin /l/ between vowels.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is a charter of the first half of the 13th century, which names la serna de la pila “the field of the basin”.^[2] In the Moamín (1250, in a copy of the late 13th century) a remedy is to be put before the bird lukewarm en una pila “in a basin”, and Alfonso X's Estoria de España (1270–1284) tells of a man drowned en una pila de agua in a house.^[16]

Semantic evolution

A medieval glossary of the Escorial uses it for the piscina, the basin for the water of the chalice, and Palencia in 1490 for a mortar in which things are pounded.^[2] Nebrija gives pila de agua and pila de bautizar, the baptismal font.^[4][2] Covarrubias (1611) records sacar a uno de pila “to stand godparent to someone”, and Autoridades adds the sense “parish” by metonymy.^[17][18] The given name is the nombre de pila, the name received at the font.^[19][5] In Bolivia and Cuba pila is a tap, and in Venezuela a public fountain.^[5]

Timeline

• 1200–1250 – first record, in a charter: la serna de la pila.^[2][13]
• 1250 – the Moamín (in a copy of the late 13th century).^[16]
• 1490 – Palencia uses it for a mortar.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives pila de bautizar “baptismal font”.^[4]
• 1542 – a record from Panama of sacar de pila “to stand godparent”.^[9]
• 1611 – Covarrubias records sacar a uno de pila.^[17]
• 1726–1739 – the Diccionario de Autoridades quotes the Quijote's pila beside a well.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A deep basin of stone or another material into which water falls or is poured; a sink, trough.^[5][1]
2. A baptismal font.^[5][1]
3. A parish.^[5][12]
4. (engineering) The receptacle at the front of a smelting furnace into which the molten metal runs.^[5]
5. (Bolivia, Cuba) A tap (grifo).^[5]
6. (El Salvador, colloquial) A fixed idea.^[5]
7. (Venezuela, colloquial) A public fountain from which the neighbours draw water.^[5]

Word family

• pileta
• pilón