Els noms de l'eriçó de mar en català

Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to study the terminological wealth surrounding the sea urchin, an animal which is little known and has little interest as a dish, especially outside the world of seamen. This situation, which has prevailed until a few decades ago, has led to the present existence, albeit seemingly paradoxicaly, of a great variety of terms on our coasts. Also, there is a general description of the geographic distribution and the vitality of some of its names. However, and beyond the dialectological description, there is also a short diacrònic view, featuring the motivational or etimological explanations for the various terms used for the sea urchin; some of these explanations differ significantly from the ones offered so far.