Etymologically
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barca

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Forms

barca f (genitive barcae); first declension[1]

Etymology

It is probably from Latin bāris (“flat-bottomed Nile boat”).[2][3][4] Wiktionary explains it as a syncopated form of Vulgar Latin *bārica.[1] Latin ⟨bāris⟩ is from Ancient Greek βᾶρις (bâris), which goes back through Demotic to Egyptian bꜣjr (“transport ship”).[1]

Wiktionary notes that the medieval word was by then a borrowing back from Romance.[1] It lives on in Italian barca and Spanish barca,[3][5] and Etymonline traces English barge to Medieval Latin ⟨barga⟩, perhaps from a Latin ⟨*barica⟩.[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wiktionary dates its first instance to an inscription from Balsa of the late 2nd or early 3rd century AD;[1] Georges cites an inscription in the second volume of the Corpus with barcārum certāmen, a contest of boats.[4] In literature it first appears in Paulinus of Nola.[7][8][9]

Semantic evolution

Isidore of Seville defines it as the boat that carries all of a ship's cargo to the shore, which the ship carries in its hold out at sea.[10][7] In Medieval Latin it is a small boat and also a large ship,[11] used in war and figuratively, and by metonymy a ship's cargo.[12] Aldhelm writes of a bark beating the shore with its rough prow.[13][12]

Timeline

  • c. 353–431 AD – Paulinus of Nola uses it in a poem.[7][8][9]
  • c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville defines it.[10][9]
  • 639–709 AD – Aldhelm: barca rudī pulsābat lītora rōstrō.[13][9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (Late Latin) A small boat, bark, lighter.[2][7]
  2. (Medieval Latin) A large ship.[11]
  3. (Medieval Latin) A ship's cargo.[12]

Word family

  • barcala
  • English barge
  • English barque

Usage notes

Barca is also the name of the Carthaginian family of Hamilcar and Hannibal,[2][4] from Punic 𐤁𐤓𐤒 (Baraq, “lightning”),[1] and of a city in Libya.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  4. ^ a b c Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
  5. ^ Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
  6. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  7. ^ a b c d Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
  9. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  10. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911)., p. 19.1.19
  11. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
  12. ^ a b c Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch bis zum ausgehenden 13. Jahrhundert (1967–), Munich: C. H. Beck; Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  13. ^ a b Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press