talla

Forms

talla f (plural tallas)^[1]

Etymology

Corominas takes it, in the sense “carving”, borrowed from Catalan talla (recorded in Catalan in 1351), and in the sense “stature” borrowed from French taille, a sense the Academy's dictionary had by 1817 and Autoridades lacks.^[2][3] Bénaben agrees.^[4] The DLE, like Autoridades and the Academy from 1884, makes it a deverbal noun of tallar (“to carve, cut”).^[5][6][7] Wiktionary takes it from French, with some senses from Catalan or from taglia.^[1] Covarrubias called the sense “levy, tax” a Tuscan term.^[8]

The Catalan noun is derived from tallar (“to cut”), from Late Latin taliare (“to cut, split”), a verb of the late Roman land surveyors formed on talea (“shoot, cutting for planting”).^[2] The native Spanish verb from the same Latin word is tajar, and talle “figure, shape of the body” is an earlier loan from French, of 1251.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest clear hit is a royal charter of 1259, in the sense “levy”: pechen connusco en talla de servicio del rey “let them pay with us in a levy for the king's service”.^[9] An ordinance of Jerez of 1268 uses it for the rate at which coins are struck from a weight of metal, together with ley “fineness”: quela non creçiese nin menguase nin enla ley nin en la talla “that it should not grow or shrink either in fineness or in rate”.^[9][10] Corominas's first record is Nebrija's talla de entallador “carver's carving” (c. 1495).^[2]

Semantic evolution

Autoridades (1739) defines a work of sculpture in wood or stone, a tax paid to a lord, and a reward offered for a ransom or for the capture of a criminal, quoting Calderón.^[6] In 1843 the Academy added a measure, a hand in card games such as banca and monte, a person's stature, and regional senses.^[11] The tax was redefined in 1899 as a tribute of the Crown of Aragon, and the coinage sense entered the dictionary then too.^[12] Alemany (1917) records the surgical sense, an operation to remove stones from the bladder.^[13]

In modern use the word names clothing sizes and, figuratively, a person's moral or intellectual stature, as in dar la talla “to measure up”.^[5][14] In the Americas it has many local senses: chat in Argentina, Chile and the Dominican Republic, a lie in Central America, a beating in Colombia, a witty remark or a joke in Chile and Paraguay, a railway sleeper in Mexico.^{[15][16][17][18]}

Timeline

• 1259 – a royal charter uses talla for a levy.^[9]
• 1268 – an ordinance of Jerez uses it for the rate of minting.^[9]
• 1351 – the Catalan talla is recorded.^[2]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija's talla de entallador, the sense “carving”.^[2][19]
• 1516 – the first record from the Americas, in Puerto Rico.^[20]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines the tax sense.^[8]
• 1739 – Autoridades: sculpture, tax and reward.^[6]
• 1817 – the sense “stature” is in the Academy's dictionary.^[2][3]
• 1899 – the Academy defines the tribute of the Crown of Aragon and the coinage sense.^[12]
• 1917 – Alemany records the surgical sense.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A carving: a work of sculpture, especially in wood: una talla gótica de la Virgen.^[5][1]
2. Height, stature of a person.^[5][1]
3. An instrument for measuring a person's height.^[5]
4. size of clothing: ¿Qué talla usas de camisa?^[5][1]
5. Moral or intellectual stature: un músico de enorme talla.^[5][14]
6. A reward offered for the ransom of a captive or the capture of a criminal.^[5]
7. The number of coins to be struck from a given weight of metal.^[5]
8. (card games) A hand or round.^[5]
9. (history) A tribute of the lords or the king in the Crown of Aragon.^[5]
10. (surgery, dated) An operation to remove stones from the bladder, lithotomy.^[5][10]
11. (Aragon, rural) A tally stick for keeping accounts.^[5]
12. (Chile, Paraguay) A witty remark; a joke.^[17][1]
13. (Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic) Chat, conversation.^[15][16]

Word family

• tallaje
• tallista

Related words

• tallar
• talle
• tajar
• entallar
• Catalan talla
• French taille

Usage notes

Dar la talla means to show the abilities a task requires.^[14] The DLE lists two other words spelt talla.^[21] One, of Andalusia and the Canaries, is a large earthenware pitcher or water cooler, which the DLE compares with Portuguese talha and Corominas treats under tina; in the Canaries it is recorded from 1520.^[21][2][22] The other is a nautical pulley or tackle, from Italian taglia.^[21][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 381
3. ^ a b Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. tajar
4. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. talla
6. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 216
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1006
8. ^ 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. 1317
9. ^ 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. talla
10. ^ a b Real Academia Nacional de Medicina (2011), Diccionario de términos médicos, Madrid: Editorial Médica Panamericana; online at https://dtme.ranm.es, p. s.v. talla
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 687
12. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 942
13. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1555
14. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. talla
15. ^ a b Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 157
16. ^ a b Academia Dominicana de la Lengua; Instituto Guzmán Ariza de Lexicografía (2024), Diccionario del español dominicano, 2nd ed., online at https://ded.igalex.org, p. s.v. talla
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. talla
18. ^ Santamaría, Francisco J. (1942), Diccionario general de americanismos, 3 vols., México: Pedro Robredo, p. 122
19. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. talla
20. ^ 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. talla
21. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. talla
22. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. talla