reja

reja¹ ploughshare

Etymology tree of reja¹

inherited borrowed derived

Latin regō

French régir

Latin rēgula

Spanish reja

French règle

German Regel

Italian regola

Spanish regla

From the same root · reja¹

Latin corrigō ← regō

Latin dīrigō ← regō

Latin ērigō ← regō

Latin expergīscor ← regō

Latin pergō ← regō

Latin porrigō ← regō

Latin rēctor ← regō

Latin rēctus ← regō

Latin regimen ← regō

Latin regimentum ← regō

Latin regiō ← regō

Latin subrigo ← regō

Latin surgō ← regō

Latin rēgulāris ← rēgula

Latin regulō ← rēgula

French régler ← règle

German regelmäßig ← Regel

Pronunciation

• /ˈrexa/, [ˈre.xa]^[1]

Forms

reja f (plural rejas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the ploughshare, first written relia, is inherited from Latin rēgula (“bar, rod; ruler”).^[2][3][4][1] In Latin the word meant any bar of metal or wood.^[2] The sense passed easily to the ploughshare, the most important iron bar on a farm.^[2] Wiktionary gives a Vulgar Latin form *regla, and the word is a doublet of regla.^[1]

The classical word for the ploughshare, Latin vōmer, survived only in Italian, Aromanian, Béarnais and Aragonese;^[5][6] French replaced it with soc, a word of Celtic origin.^[2] Descendants of the word for “bar” took its place in Occitan relha, Catalan rella, Portuguese relha, Galician rella, Aragonese rella and Asturian reya, and in some dialects of south-eastern France.^[2][5][6] The Latin noun is formed from regō (“to direct, rule”) with the suffix -ula.^[1][7]

Until the 16th century this word, pronounced with /ʒ/ and written ⟨j⟩ or ⟨i⟩, was kept apart from the word for the grille, written ⟨rexa⟩ with /ʃ/.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DCECH's first record is the form relia in a Burgos charter of 974; the form reja appears in a charter of 1216 and in Berceo.^[2][3] In the Fuero de Cáceres (c. 1234–1275) the smiths must keep the ploughshares, Los ferreros tengan las reias, and in Berceo's Milagros a farmer usava la reja más qe otra lavor “used the plough more than any other work”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always been in general use for the iron of the plough;^[10] Alfonso X's Estoria de España describes defeated warriors forced to till with reias & açadas “ploughshares and hoes”.^[2][10] A fuero of the 13th century speaks of fallow land ploughed de dos rejas “with two ploughings”, the sense “one turn of ploughing” that the DLE still lists.^[9][4] Nebrija translated it with Latin vomis, and Pedro de Alcalá (1505) still kept rreja “ploughshare” apart from rrexa “grille”.^[11][8] Covarrubias explained the name as quasi rigida, from the force with which the share tears out roots.^[12]

In Asturias the Leonese form reya also names the cross-pieces of a cart wheel and the beams that hold a wine press.^[2][13] Among the derivatives, rejón (1475) was a pointed iron bar and then the lance used to wound bulls, from which rejonear and rejoneador.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 934 – DEMel lists the forms reia and regga from the cartulary of San Millán de la Cogolla.^[14]
• 974 – relia in a charter from Burgos.^[2][3]
• 1216 – the form reja in a charter.^[2][3]
• c. 1234–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres regulates the smiths' reias.^[9]
• 1270–1284 – Alfonso X's Estoria de España uses it in the sense “ploughshare”.^[10]
• 1369 – first record of the derivative rejada “goad”.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: reja de hierro para arar, Latin vomis.^[11][2]
• 1541 – first record from the Americas, in Puebla: 2 yuntas de bueyes con sus rrejas.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias derives it from rigor.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ploughshare: the iron part of the plough that breaks and turns the soil.^[4][1]
2. A ploughing: one turn given to the soil with the plough: A ese campo le dimos tres rejas antes de sembrar.^[4][16]

Word family

• rejón
• rejo
• rejada
• arrejada
• rejonear
• rejoneador

reja² grille

Pronunciation

• /ˈrexa/, [ˈre.xa]^[1]

Forms

reja f (plural rejas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the grille is of disputed origin: the Academy and Wiktionary take it as borrowed from Italian regge (“church doors”), from rēgia (“royal (door)”), short for the phrase “royal door”, the door of the Lord's house; in Old Italian the word also named the screen that separates the faithful from the altar.^[4][1][17] The REW explains this Latin use as a translation of Ancient Greek βασιλική (basilikḗ), the name of the door in the iconostasis.^[18]

Corominas sees a probable kinship with Occitan reja and the northern Italian rezza, but notes that the old Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese forms all have an ⟨x⟩ (/ʃ/) that does not fit this etymology.^[8][17] The same word is Catalan reixa and Portuguese reixa, recorded in Catalan from 1373, a century before Castilian; in old Portuguese and Catalan it named a single bar of a grating.^[8] He concludes that in the Iberian Peninsula the Latin word merged with the Arabic word for “feather”, which in colloquial Arabic meant the spoke of a wheel and other small rod-shaped things.^[8][17] Corriente, Pereira and Vicente accept this contamination.^[19] Corominas rejects the REW's derivation of the grille word, like the ploughshare, from rēgula, and the proposals of Carolina Michaëlis, Diez and Subak.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is rrexa in Guillén de Segovia's rhyming dictionary of 1475, without a gloss;^[20] Nebrija gives the modern sense: rexa: clatrus, cancelli.^[8][20] The DICCA-XV reports a CORDE record from 1408.^[20]

Semantic evolution

Once ⟨x⟩ and ⟨j⟩ fell together in the late 16th century, the two words were written alike, and Percyvall (1591), Oudin, Covarrubias and the Diccionario de Autoridades treat them under one spelling.^[8][21][12] Asturian, which keeps rexa “window grille” apart from reya “ploughshare”, and Judeo-Spanish réja “grille” still show the old distinction.^[8] Covarrubias guessed that the grille was named from red “net”, because its bars are interlaced like a net.^[12]

The Diccionario de Autoridades describes iron grilles on windows and in churches, quoting the grilles of a convent's chapel.^[22] Through the image of prison bars the phrase entre rejas means “in prison”, and in Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia and Peru reja itself is the prison.^[23][24][25] Other regional senses are a darn in clothing (Mexico) and a lorry with a fenced trailer for cattle (Chile).^[26][27][28]

Timeline

• 1373 – the Catalan cognate reixa in a Barcelona document.^[8]
• 1475 – first record, rrexa, in Guillén de Segovia.^[8][17]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija: rexa, Latin clatrus, cancelli; first records of enrejar and enrejado.^[20][17]
• 1505 – Pedro de Alcalá distinguishes rrexa “grille” from rreja “ploughshare”.^[8]
• 1542 – first record from the Americas, in Panama: fuera de la rrexa.^[15]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses reja as both “a plough” and “an iron grate”.^[21]
• 1917 – Alemany records the sense “prison” in Honduras.^[25]

Meanings

Noun

1. A grille or grating: a set of metal or wooden bars fixed in a window or other opening for security or decoration, or used inside a church to fence off a space.^[4][1]
2. (in the plural) The bars of a prison cell;^[1][23] entre rejas or tras las rejas “behind bars, in prison”.^[1][23]
3. (Honduras, Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru) prison.^[24]

Word family

• rejilla
• rejero
• rejería
• rejado
• rejuela
• enrejar
• enrejado