Antoni Corcoll i Llobet
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.