Etymologically
Log in

barca

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 21 October 2026 at 21:11. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

Forms

barca f (plural barche)[1] Early texts have Old Italian barcha, Old Italian barka and Old Italian bargha.[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin barca (“boat”), first found in an inscription from Lusitania of about 200 AD and then in Isidore of Seville, who describes it as the boat that carried goods from merchant ships to the shore.[3][4][5] The word lives on in Old Occitan barca, Catalan barca, Spanish barca and Portuguese barca, and in Old French barge; French barque was taken from Occitan.[6] Nocentini adds that it spread from the Mediterranean languages to German Barke and English bark.[7]

Its further origin is disputed.[3][7][5] Nocentini, Zingarelli and Wiktionary trace it to Latin bāris (“Egyptian barge”), from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris), which is probably Egyptian bꜣjr (“transport ship”), through a derivative Vulgar Latin *barica.[7][8][1] The LEI starts from the same base, as a pre-Romance derivative of a root for “container”, perhaps connected with the Greek word.[4] DEI finds the link with the Greek word hard to defend, since the Latin word had no life of its own, and stresses that the first records come from the Iberian Peninsula; it compares Iberian place names and Basque words for a ford, river or valley, so that the boat would first have been a river boat.[5] Others again connect it with the word for a heap of sheaves (see Usage notes).[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's Rettorica, written in Florence about 1260–1261;[2][3] DELI's first record is the Novellino, at the end of the 13th century, for a small boat carrying people and goods.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Boccaccio has a lady lie weeping “nel fondo della barca” (at the bottom of the boat).[9] Derivatives followed early: barcaiolo, a boatman, before 1348 in Giovanni Villani, and barchetta at the end of the 13th century;[3][7] imbarcare is recorded from 1502 and sbarcare from the 16th century.[3][7] Barcollare, “to stagger”, is formed on the rocking of a small boat.[7]

The figurative sense of a family, business or set of affairs to be kept going is recorded in 1808 in Filippo Pananti, in mandare avanti la barca.[3] In 1963 the word was noted jokingly for a pleasure craft, even a large one.[3] Colloquially barche are shoes far too big, and in dyeing a barca is a vat.[10][8][11] La barca di Pietro is the Church, and essere nella stessa barca is to be in the same situation as others.[8][11]

The word was borrowed into Ottoman Turkish.[1]

Timeline

  • About 200 AD – Latin barca appears in an inscription from Lusitania.[4]
  • c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses barca in his Rettorica.[2]
  • End of the 13th century – The Novellino uses barca and barchetta.[3][7]
  • Before 1348 – Barcaiolo is recorded in Giovanni Villani.[3]
  • 1502 – Imbarcare is recorded.[7]
  • 1808 – Filippo Pananti uses mandare avanti la barca.[3]
  • Before 1850 – Giuseppe Giusti uses barcamenarsi.[3]
  • 1963 – The sense “pleasure craft, even a large one” is recorded.[3]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A boat, a small craft driven by oars, sail or engine: Domenica usciamo in barca a vela.[10][11][8]
  2. A pleasure boat, even a large yacht: Passano l'estate in barca.[10][11][8]
  3. The load a boat carries: una barca di ghiaia.[10][11]
  4. (figurative, colloquial) A family, business or enterprise to be kept going: Da quando è morto il padre, è lei che manda avanti la barca.[10][11][8]
  5. (colloquial, usually plural) Shoes far too big.[10][11][8]
  6. A vat for dyeing textiles.[10][8]

Word family

  • barcaiolo
  • barcaccia
  • barchetta
  • barcone
  • barcata
  • barcarola
  • barcamenarsi
  • barcollare
  • imbarcare
  • imbarcazione
  • imbarco
  • sbarcare
  • sobbarcare
  • French barque

Usage notes

Essere nella stessa barca (or sulla stessa barca) is “to be in the same boat”.[11][8][10]

A separate barca means a stack of sheaves of grain or fodder piled in the open, and figuratively a great quantity (una barca di soldi).[3][10][11][8] DELI dates it from about 1350, in the translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, and numbers it barca¹ before the boat;[3][10][7][12] GRADIT and DELI derive it from a pre-Roman *barrica or *barga, while Nocentini takes it as a transferred use of the boat word, “boatload, large quantity”.[3][10][7][12]

References

  1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Tesoro della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (1997–), Opera del Vocabolario Italiano, CNR, Firenze; tlio.ovi.cnr.it
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  4. ^ a b c Pfister, Max; Schweickard, Wolfgang; Prifti, Elton (eds.) (1979–), Lessico Etimologico Italiano, Wiesbaden: Reichert; online at lei-digitale.it, p. 4, 1326
  5. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 436
  6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Zingarelli, Nicola (2009), Lo Zingarelli 2010: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Bologna: Zanichelli
  9. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  12. ^ a b Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca, p. 2, 67