valija

Forms

valija f (plural valijas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian valigia, a word of uncertain origin, perhaps pre-Roman.^[2][3][1] French valise and German Felleisen were taken from Italian too.^[2][4] Corominas finds it late in Spanish, and suggests that soldiers brought it back from the Italian wars of the 16th century.^[2] Portuguese doesn't have it, and Catalan only once in 1489, in an Italian form.^[2]

The word is at home in Italy, where it is frequent from the 14th century, and the Medieval Latin valisia (also valixia, valesia) is recorded mostly in Italian documents.^[2][5] Corominas rejects Diez's Vulgar Latin *vidulitia and the Arabic وليهة (walīha, “large sack”) suggested by Devic.^[2] Corriente also rejects the Arabic word, which Eguílaz had proposed, as impossible.^[2][6] Of the other proposals he finds Gamillscheg's Gaulish *valisia (“wrapping”) the easiest to defend, from a root meaning “to bend, wrap”, though Meyer-Lübke objected that a Celtic word confined to Italy is surprising.^[2] Wiktionary gives the same Gaulish source, through a northern Italian dialect form.^[1] Nocentini prefers Alessio's derivation from Latin bilix (“woven with a double thread”), the name of a rough blanket rolled round the traveller's clothes, through northern dialect forms such as Milanese valìs.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Francisco Delicado's La Lozana andaluza (1528), where a carrier asks ¿manda vuestra merced que venga con mi valija? “does your ladyship wish me to come with my bag?”.^[8][2] In Cristóbal de Castillejo, in the first half of the 16th century, it is a travelling bag carried on the haunches of a mule.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word is missing from the medieval glossaries and Nebrija's dictionary, and appears in the dictionaries from Cristóbal de las Casas (1570) and Percyvall on, all spelling it balija, probably under the influence of bala “bale”; the Academy kept the spelling with b- until the middle of the 19th century.^[2] The Diccionario de Autoridades defined it as the bag or small trunk in which travellers carry what they need.^[2] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 also gave the leather mail bag of the couriers and the courier himself, and named French valise as its source.^[9] The edition of 1899 changed this to Italian.^[9][10]

In Spain the word is now used mainly for the diplomatic bag and the mail, with maleta the usual word for a suitcase; in Argentina and other American countries valija is the ordinary word.^[2][11] As early as 1570 a writer in Peru noted that nuestras valijas were called petacas there.^[12]

Timeline

• 1528 – first record, in Delicado's La Lozana andaluza.^[8][2]
• first half of the 16th century – Cristóbal de Castillejo uses it for a bag carried on a mule.^[2]
• 1558 – French borrows valise from Italian.^[4]
• 1570 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[12]
• 1604 – Mateo Alemán uses it in the second part of the Guzmán de Alfarache.^[8]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary derives it from French valise.^[9]
• 1899 – the Academy changes the etymology to Italian valigia.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A suitcase (now chiefly in Latin America): Dejó las valijas en el auto.^[3][13][1]
2. A locked leather mailbag in which couriers carry the post.^[3]
3. The mail or the courier who carries it.^[3]
4. (Bolivia, Uruguay) The boot or trunk of a car.^[13][11]
5. (Uruguay, colloquial, ironic) Large buttocks, especially a woman's.^[3]

Word family

• envalijar
• desvalijar
• valijero

Related words

• Italian valigia
• French valise

Usage notes

Valija diplomática is the sealed bag that carries the official correspondence between a government and its diplomats abroad, and also that correspondence.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 734
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. valija
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. valise
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre, p. s.v. valisia
6. ^ Corriente, Federico (1999), Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, Madrid: Gredos, p. 495
7. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. valigia
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. valija
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 1070
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 1002
11. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. valija
12. ^ 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. valija
13. ^ 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. valija