viola

viola¹ musical instrument

Pronunciation

• /ˈbjola/, [ˈbjo.la]^[1]

Forms

viola f (plural violas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the musical instrument is borrowed from Italian viola.^[2][3][4][1] Corominas explains it as a phonetic variant of vihuela taken from Italian for a different instrument.^[5][3] The 2001 edition of the Academy's dictionary and Moliner take it instead from Old Occitan viula, and García de Diego also sends the instrument name through that word.^[6][7][8]

Corominas considers it probable that every Romance language took the instrument name from the Old Occitan word, which was sometimes written with ⟨o⟩ and is a derivative of viular (“to play the vihuela or a wind instrument”), of plainly imitative value.^[5][3] Nocentini also derives the Italian word from Occitan.^[9] Corominas thinks the Germanic name of the fiddle may be an independent onomatopoeia.^[5][3] Diez derived the word from vītulor (“to rejoice”), which Corominas does not reject outright.^[5] The Academy's dictionary followed that derivation in 1884, and Autoridades had already reported Du Cange's vitula.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Autoridades (1739) is the first to record viola for the instrument, which it describes as like the violón but larger, usually with six strings and eight frets, and names the twelve-string viola de amor.^[3][11] Medieval Spanish had viola only as a variant of vihuela: the Libro de Apolonio (mid-13th century) once writes viola beside vihuela, and Tarsiana takes up huna viola buena & bien tenprada “a good, well-tuned viola”.^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

The Academy's dictionary of 1817 describes the instrument in its modern form: shaped like the violin but somewhat larger, with heavier strings, the alto of its family.^[13] The edition of 1899 adds the player, “a person who plays the viola”.^[14] Vox notes that in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance the name was given to various stringed instruments, plucked or bowed, of different sizes.^[4]

In the River Plate viola means “guitar”; the DHLE takes this sense from Portuguese viola, recorded in the mouth of a Portuguese pirate in El amor de la estanciera (c. 1778) and in Argentine writing from 1883.^[15][16]

Timeline

• mid-13th century – the Libro de Apolonio has viola as a variant of vihuela.^[5][12]
• 1739 – Autoridades records viola and viola de amor.^[11][3]
• c. 1778 – viola “guitar” in El amor de la estanciera, in the mouth of a Portuguese character.^[15]
• 1817 – the Academy defines it as the alto of the violin family.^[13]
• 1883 – viola “guitar” in an Argentine text, Cantalicio Quirós y Miterio Castro.^[15]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from Low Latin vitula, from vitulari “to rejoice”.^[10]
• 1899 – the Academy adds the sense “viola player”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The viola, a stringed instrument played with a bow, shaped like the violin (violín) but a little larger and lower in pitch: Estudia viola en el conservatorio.^[2][1]
2. (masculine or feminine) A person who plays the viola; a violist.^[2]
3. (Argentina, Uruguay, colloquial) A guitar (guitarra).^[16][1]

Word family

• violista

viola² violet

Etymology tree of viola²

inherited borrowed derived

Latin viola

English viola

Spanish viola

From the same root · viola²

Latin violarium ← viola

Pronunciation

• /ˈbjola/, [ˈbjo.la]^[1]

Forms

viola f (plural violas)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the flower is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Latin viola (“violet; stock”).^[2][4] The OLD takes the Latin noun as probably cognate with Ancient Greek ἴον (íon, “violet”), and Wiktionary and Nocentini suppose that both words came from a pre-Indo-European Mediterranean language.^[17][1][9]

The usual Spanish word is violeta, taken from French violette, a diminutive of viole, which goes back to the same Latin noun.^[18][19] The simple word lives on in Italian viola and Catalan viola, and Romanian vioară continues it as well.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Razón de amor (early 13th century, in a manuscript of 1250–1260) names las uiolas among the flowers growing by a spring, beside sage, roses and lilies.^[12][20] The Moamín, a book on hunting animals translated about 1250, prescribes olio de la uiola marina.^[21][12]

Semantic evolution

Corominas notes that Góngora and some others used the Latinism viola beside the usual violeta;^[11] Autoridades quotes Góngora's line Unas veces clavél, otras viola and calls it a purely Latin word.^[18][11] In Aragon, perhaps under Catalan influence, viola names the wallflower or stock (alhelí).^[18][11][22]

Timeline

• early 13th century – las uiolas in the Razón de amor.^[12]
• c. 1250 – uiola marina in the Moamín.^[21]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades quotes Góngora and records the Aragonese sense “wallflower”.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin viola.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (literary) The violet (violeta), Viola.^[2][7]
2. (Aragon) The wallflower or stock (alhelí).^[7][22]