înalt

Forms

înalt m or n (feminine singular înaltă, masculine plural înalți, feminine/neuter plural înalte)^[1] The short form nalt is the usual popular one, and Moldavia has nant;^[2][3] MDA2 also lists the old variants analt, înant, îralt and ralt.^[2][3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the short form: „Apa ... acoperi toți munții cei nalți” “the water ... covered all the high mountains”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin altus (“high”) with an initial în- that the sources explain in different ways.^[4][2] DEX 2009 and MDA2 derive it from the Latin phrase in altum (“on high”), and Wiktionary from a Vulgar Latin *inaltum.^[5][3][1] The REW and the DA start from the adverb in altō (“on high”) used as an adjective, while Pascu put the prefix down to the verb înălța, and Tiktin leaves the choice open between these two.^[4][2] Ciorănescu prefers a sandhi explanation: phrases such as ⟨în altul cerului⟩ and ⟨din alt⟩ were heard as ⟨în nalt⟩, ⟨din nalt⟩, which would also explain why the popular form is nalt.^[4]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian analtu and Megleno-Romanian nalt.^[4][6][7][8] The same formation is found in Albanian naltë, which Çabej takes from the same Latin phrase.^[4][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian alto, Spanish alto, Portuguese alto, Catalan alt, Occitan aut and French haut, and southern French dialects have Occitan naut from the same phrase.^[4][10] The Latin adjective has the form of the participle of alō (“to feed”), but de Vaan finds the meanings hard to connect.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the 16th-century psalters: Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has înalt in Psalm 67.^[12] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 98), and MDA2's is Coresi's Psalter of 1577.^[2][3] The sense there is physical height, “high”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From physical height the word passed to tall stature and to high pitch.^[5][3] Figurative senses grew early: “high-minded” (om înalt cu mintea “a man of lofty mind”) and, as an adverb, “haughtily”.^[2] The old sense “proud, haughty” is now obsolete.^[4][3] The word enters the title of a metropolitan, Înalt Prea Sfinția Sa “His High Holiness”.^[2] As a neuter noun it means “height”;^[2][3] Moxa writes of naltul ceriului “the height of the sky”.^[2][3] Modern technical language added “high” of voltage, pressure and frequency, and înaltă fidelitate “high fidelity”.^[5]

The verb înălța “to raise” may be a Romanian derivative of the adjective or continue a Latin *altiare or *inaltiare, as Ciorănescu notes.^[4]

Timeline

• 1570 – înalt in Coresi's Psalter.^[12]
• 16th century – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Tiktin's first record.^[2]
• 1577 – in Coresi's Psalter of 1577, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – munții cei nalți “the high mountains” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. high: rising far upward, or situated at a great height.^[5][1]
2. Of people and animals: tall, of great stature.^[5][3][1]
3. Of sounds: high-pitched, sharp.^[5][3]
4. Of voltage, pressure or frequency: high in value.^[5][3]
5. (figurative) High in rank or worth; superior, distinguished, lofty.^[5][3]

Noun

1. (neuter) height;^[5][3] înaltul cerului “the vault of heaven”.^[5][3]

Word family

• înălța
• înălțare
• înălțător
• înălțat
• înălțătură
• înălție
• înălțime
• preaînălța
• preaînălțat

Related words

• altitudine
• înălticel
• înăltuț
• Aromanian analtu
• Latin altus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înalt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1199
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. înalt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 536
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 98
7. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 34
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 64
9. ^ Çabej, Eqrem (2002), Studime etimologjike në fushë të shqipes VI (N–Rr), Tiranë, p. 9
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 387
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 67:19
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. înalt