barca Italian · revision 38342

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 1260–1261, Brunetto Latini's Rettorica|origins=la-lat barca}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈbar.ka/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''barca''' ''f'' (plural barche)^(Wiktionary)

+ Early texts have [[roa-oit|barcha]], [[roa-oit|barka]] and [[roa-oit|bargha]].^(TLIO)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la-lat|barca|t=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.^(DELI 1999)^(LEI|4, 1326)^(DEI|436) The word lives on in [[pro|barca]], [[ca|barca]], [[es|barca]] and [[pt|barca]], and in [[fro|barge]]; [[fr|barque]] was taken from Occitan.^(REW 1935) Nocentini adds that it spread from the Mediterranean languages to [[de|Barke]] and [[en|bark]].^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ Its further origin is disputed.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)^(DEI|436) Nocentini, Zingarelli and Wiktionary trace it to [[la|bāris|t=Egyptian barge]], from [[grc|βᾶρις|tr=bâris]], which is probably [[egy|bꜣjr|t=transport ship]], through a derivative [[la-vul|*barica]].^(Nocentini 2010)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Wiktionary) The LEI starts from the same base, as a pre-Romance derivative of a root for “container”, perhaps connected with the Greek word.^(LEI|4, 1326) 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.^(DEI|436) Others again connect it with the word for a heap of sheaves (see Usage notes).^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The TLIO's first record is in Brunetto Latini's ''Rettorica'', written in Florence about 1260–1261;^(TLIO)^(DELI 1999) DELI's first record is the ''Novellino'', at the end of the 13th century, for a small boat carrying people and goods.^(TLIO)^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Boccaccio has a lady lie weeping “nel fondo della barca” (at the bottom of the boat).^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861) Derivatives followed early: ''barcaiolo'', a boatman, before 1348 in Giovanni Villani, and ''barchetta'' at the end of the 13th century;^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) ''imbarcare'' is recorded from 1502 and ''sbarcare'' from the 16th century.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010) ''Barcollare'', “to stagger”, is formed on the rocking of a small boat.^(Nocentini 2010)

+

+ 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''.^(DELI 1999) In 1963 the word was noted jokingly for a pleasure craft, even a large one.^(DELI 1999) Colloquially ''barche'' are shoes far too big, and in dyeing a ''barca'' is a vat.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Devoto–Oli 2026) ''La barca di Pietro'' is the Church, and ''essere nella stessa barca'' is to be in the same situation as others.^(Zingarelli 2010)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+

+ The word was borrowed into Ottoman Turkish.^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * About 200 AD – Latin ''barca'' appears in an inscription from Lusitania.^(LEI|4, 1326)

+ * c. 1260–1261 – Brunetto Latini uses ''barca'' in his ''Rettorica''.^(TLIO)

+ * End of the 13th century – The ''Novellino'' uses ''barca'' and ''barchetta''.^(DELI 1999)^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * Before 1348 – ''Barcaiolo'' is recorded in Giovanni Villani.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1502 – ''Imbarcare'' is recorded.^(Nocentini 2010)

+ * 1808 – Filippo Pananti uses ''mandare avanti la barca''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1850 – Giuseppe Giusti uses ''barcamenarsi''.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1963 – The sense “pleasure craft, even a large one” is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|boat]], a small craft driven by oars, sail or engine: ''Domenica usciamo in barca a vela.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # A pleasure boat, even a large [[m|en|yacht]]: ''Passano l'estate in barca.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # The [[m|en|load]] a boat carries: ''una barca di ghiaia''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)

+ # ''(figurative, colloquial)'' A family, business or enterprise to be kept going: ''Da quando è morto il padre, è lei che manda avanti la barca.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(colloquial, usually plural)'' Shoes far too big.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # A [[m|en|vat]] for dyeing textiles.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[barcaiolo]]

+ * [[barcaccia]]

+ * [[barchetta]]

+ * [[barcone]]

+ * [[barcata]]

+ * [[barcarola]]

+ * [[barcamenarsi]]

+ * [[barcollare]]

+ * [[imbarcare]]

+ * [[imbarcazione]]

+ * [[imbarco]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[sbarcare]]

+ * [[sobbarcare]]

+ * [[fr|barque]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ ''Essere nella stessa barca'' (or ''sulla stessa barca'') is “to be in the same boat”.^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ 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'').^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010) DELI dates it from about 1350, in the translation of Pietro de' Crescenzi, and numbers it ''barca''¹ before the boat;^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GDLI|2, 67) 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”.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Nocentini 2010)^(GDLI|2, 67)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}