Basque ethnography at a glance

Flock of sheep sheltering from the sun in Arraba. Source: Labayru Foundation photo archive.

7 amazing words

In any language we can find incredible words, because the words themselves are original, expressive, changing, capricious… and among those oral flowers there are of many ages, sizes, appearance, colors and meanings. How can we not be amazed, thus, contemplating some of those wonderful pieces that yesterday and today in different places human intelligence and creativity have been produced! Nowadays it has become fashionable to show emblematic words from different languages on social networks, for people’s enjoyment. The idea is really good. But in these reels or short videos, false or invented etymologies are often given, due to the obsession with dazzling people. That is not our intention. Here we will present seven words or expressions from Basque, which have some particularity that makes them special. We use some of them naturally in our daily live, sometimes without paying attention to their intrinsic value or their beauty. Others we use less frequently, despite knowing them. And some of them may even be on the verge of extinction, having been displaced from use by new words and/or alterations in their meaning. In any case, all of them are part of our language and we are not going to give them up! On the contrary. It is a real pleasure to be able to display them on the counter, so that, on the one hand, we realize their value, and on the other, we feel encouraged to use them in the future.

Alkar poderoso (Succession by Commissioner). It is a really curious hybrid. You will not find it in the usual dictionaries. It is a legal figure of Basque Civil Law, and it works as follows: a testator appoints one or more commissioners to represent him once he dies and take charge of managing his assets. In the Spanish Civil Code, for example, this practice is absolutely prohibited, since it is understood that the act of making a will is totally personal. The alkar poderoso system has its origins in a rural society and already appears in the New Jurisdiction of Bizkaia in 1526. It was created with the aim of avoiding excessive segregation of assets, strengthening the right of the widowed spouse. From a philological point of view, the term is composed of two words: alkar or elkar (which expresses the idea of reciprocity, although it is difficult to translate it literally into other languages) and poderoso (a loan taken from ancient Spanish that means that it has or gives power). In short, it would be something like having or giving power to each other.

Aspaldiko (How long!). Who doesn’t know this traditional expression! We use it to greet someone we haven’t seen in a while. It is a peculiar word and does not have an easy translation. We also use it a lot as an adjective: aspaldiko ohiturak (old customs), aspaldiko lagunak (old friends)… As an adverb it becomes a playful term, because it can mean almost the opposite just by changing the suffix: aspaldian (a long time ago) and aspaldion (lately).

Abaro (shade, shelter). This word means shelter under trees and has its origins in the need to protect livestock from the sun. From that area of use it began to extend to others, maintaining the sense of refuge, shade, protection. On the other hand, there is a nice verb that reminds us of the ancient meaning of the term: abaro egin. This verbal locution means biao egin or siesta egin (take a nap), since the shelter of the trees is an ideal place to take a nap after dinner, safe from the sun’s rays.

Auzo-lotsa (other people’s shame). The concept is general and well-known: the shame that others feel when someone does or says something. But the term has a lot of originality. It is made up of two elements. In the first we have the word auzo. On the one hand, it is used to designate the groups of houses or neighborhoods into which a town or city is divided (syn. auzune, auzotegi ‘neighborhood’), but on the other hand, it also has the meaning of ‘in the sorroundings’, ‘next to’. And that is precisely where the beautiful term auzo-lotsa is born. At the expression level, the one we present here would have a meaning equivalent to this other beautiful one that I once heard from an Ondarrese woman and that I liked so much: nobera lotsatu bir! (one has to be ashamed!).

Bezuza (gift). It is an archaic word, and today it is difficult to hear it. Instead we constantly use oparia to say ‘gift’ (in other times oparia was more like ‘sacrifice’). The word bezuza is very old, as it is compiled in a collection of sayings from the 16th century: Inudea laztan dauenak seinari bezuza (‘If you love the maid, give the child a gift’). A few years ago I heard a woman from Galdakao use it naturally, and I was very happy to see that the word was still in use. The future of that word depends on us. Therefore, euskaldunak usa beza bezuza berba! (the expression I have used is a play on words that is lost when translated, and that comes to mean ‘let Basque speakers use the word bezuza’).

Bihotzerre (heartburn). This Basque word can be framed in the field of health or medicine, and this would be its meaning: the bitterness that is sometimes felt in the stomach or esophagus after eating. Morphologically speaking, it is a word composed of two elements. The first is bihotz (heart), and it is really curious, since it is a stomach illness. Although it can also be understood, because the heart is not far from the mouth of the stomach and the esophagus. The second of them is erre (burn, burned) and it could be related to the verb to burn, since that bitterness in the stomach can give us a burning sensation. But the truly surprising fact arises when we look for the equivalent of the word bihotzerre in English, since it is said ‘heartburn’, that is, literal bihotzerre! The English term appears already in the early Middle English period, but with the meaning of lust and burning desire. It would not appear until the next century in the mid 1400s with the meaning we give it today. The mention was in a pharmaceutical textbook, where it was said that to combat dyspepsia you had to take boiled wormwood. Thus, the philological research challenge of finding the explanation for this coincidence of terms between English and Basque is served!

Eguzki-begi (sunny area). It would mean the part where the sun shines (syn. egutera) and we often use it in the inessive case: Gure etxea eguzki-begian dago (our house is in a sunny area). The second element of this beautiful compound word draws attention: the word begi (eye). It is a polysemic word, which in addition to designating the organ of sight, can indicate, among other things, the expression of the face, the state of mind or the direction of the gaze. From there, we find it in countless compounds, like the one we are dealing with here. Leaving variants and meanings aside, it is attractive to imagine that what is in the sun is really under the eye or gaze of the sun. Barandiaran, for example, tells us that in Ataun daylight is called euzki (sun) and the sun euzki-begi (eye of the sun). In Berastegi, however, the sun must be called Jainkoaren begi (literally ‘eye of God’). Let us not forget that in ancient Egypt the sun was represented as the eye of the god Ra.

These seven words are nothing but seven pearls among the countless precious stones that our Basque language treasures. In the next articles we will bring to the counter more examples of our great linguistic and cultural treasure, in the conviction that admiring these words will lead us to use them.

Joseba Santxo Uriarte – Philologist and researcher