vera

Forms

vera f (plural veras)^[1]

Etymology

The word for an edge or bank is of uncertain origin.^[2][3] Corominas considers it probably borrowed from Portuguese beira (“edge, bank”), a much more common word in Portuguese and Galician, recorded there in 1228; in Leonese and Andalusian speech it may be native.^[2][4] The correct spelling would then be ⟨bera⟩, as in Juan Ruiz's ⟨Bera de Plasencia⟩.^[2][4]

He takes the word to be pre-Roman: the Vera of Plasencia and the towns called Vera in Almería, Navarre and Zaragoza all lie on rivers, and Vera in Almería is the Roman Baria, also written Bareia.^[4][2] From this he reconstructs a form *baría or *barea, and thinks a Celtic origin likely though not certain, perhaps from the root of French berge (“bank of a river”).^[2] He rejects Diez's derivation of the Portuguese word from ribeira (“riverbank”) with the prefix taken off.^[2]

The DLE derives it instead from Latin viria (“bracelet; ring”), a Latin word of Celtic origin.^[3][5] Pliny gives its plural as the Celtiberian name for men's arm rings, and Wiktionary traces it to *viros (“round, crooked”).^[6][1] Older views took the word from ōra (“edge, shore”): Autoridades and the Academy from 1884, and García de Diego from the phrase ab ora (“from the edge”), which Corominas rejects because ⟨o⟩ could not give ⟨ve-⟩ or ⟨bei-⟩.^[7][8][9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is an Asiento of Ronda of 1491, en la calleja de vera del muro “in the lane by the wall”.^[2][4] In the diary of his first voyage (1492) Columbus writes of a river in Hispaniola a las veras o ribera dél “along its banks or shore”, adding a synonym that suggests the word was little used.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In Castilian the word was old only as the name of the Vera of Plasencia and as a sailors' word.^[2] Nebrija and the other early dictionaries lack it.^[2] Autoridades (1739) is the first to record it clearly, as a word much used in Extremadura, with a quotation of 1627 containing vera mar “along the sea”.^[2][7] The Academy labelled it “in some parts” in 1817 and provincial in 1843, and dropped the label only in 1884.^[2][10][11]

Today it is used mainly in la vera del río and in the familiar phrase a la vera de “beside”.^[2][3] It is livelier in the western and southern dialects: Asturian vera “edge of a field”, Salamanca and Zamora vera “painted band at the foot of a wall”, Andalusian vera “side”, and Aragonese vera “edge”.^[2][12][13]

Timeline

• 1330–1343 – Juan Ruiz names the Bera de Plasencia.^[2]
• 1491 – an Asiento of Ronda has vera del muro.^[2][4]
• 1492 – Columbus writes a las veras o ribera of a river in Hispaniola.^[2]
• 1494 – the Repartimiento de Comares has vera del dicho río.^[2]
• 1627 – Alonso de Sandoval uses vera mar.^[2][7]
• 1739 – Autoridades records it as a word of Extremadura.^[7]
• 1817 – the Academy labels it “in some parts”.^[10]
• 1884 – the Academy drops the regional label and derives it from Latin ora.^[8][2]
• 19th century – the derivative veril “edge of a shoal”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. Edge, bank or shore of a river, road or the like.^[3][5][1]
2. (Salamanca, Zamora) A painted band along the bottom of a wall; a frieze.^[3][12]
3. (poetic) Side.^[1]

Word family

• veril

Related words

• Portuguese beira
• orilla

Usage notes

A la vera means “at the edge” and “close beside”, as in se quedó a la vera de su madre.^[3][5] The DLE has a separate vera², an American tree of the caltrop family like the guaiacum, with very hard, heavy reddish wood (Bulnesia arborea); the Academy recorded it in 1884, and Wiktionary takes it from English verawood.^[3][8][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 5, 114
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vera
4. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vera
5. ^ a b c Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. vera
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. uiria
7. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 457
8. ^ 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. 1080
9. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 28
10. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 885
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 738
12. ^ a b Lamano y Beneite, José de (1915), El dialecto vulgar salmantino, Salamanca: Tipografía Popular, p. 661
13. ^ Borao, Jerónimo (1908), Diccionario de voces aragonesas, 2nd ed., Zaragoza: Imprenta del Hospicio Provincial, p. 20