încheietură

Forms

încheietură f (plural încheieturi)^[1] An older variant închietură occurs in the Mineiul of 1716: „închietura zidurilor” “the joining of the walls”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian încheia + -tură, a noun of the place or result of joining.^[1][4] DEX and MDA2 divide it a little differently, as the participle încheiat with the suffix -ură.^[5][3]

The academy dictionary DA derived the noun directly from a Vulgar Latin base, *clautūra;^[4][1] Ciorănescu finds that unnecessary, and Wiktionary calls it the less likely view.^[4][1] The verb încheia goes back, according to DEX and MDA2, to Latin inclāvō.^[5][3] Ciorănescu, following Tiktin, Candrea–Densusianu and Scriban, prefers a Romanian formation on cheie “key”, and finds the Latin source less likely.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to the 16th century, from the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, where it renders “creature, frame” in Psalm 102.^[6][7] MDA2 gives its first record as Dosoftei's lives of the saints (Iași, 1682–1686).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The concrete senses are the place where two things are joined, as the beams at the corners of a log house, and the joint of the bones.^[2][6][5] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 already uses the plural încheieturile three times.^[8] By extension the word came to name the part of the body at a joint, such as the wrist.^[5][1]

The old language also used it in abstract senses: a bond or link, a grammatical article, a syllable, a cadence in music, a degree, and a conclusion.^[3][6][2] A regional sense is the buttonhole of a coat.^[3][2] Scriban records încheietoare in the same sense of a joint in Bucovina.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, in the sense “creature, frame”.^[6][7]
• 1682–1686 – Dosoftei's lives of the saints, the first record in MDA2.^[3]
• 1688 – the plural încheieturile in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]
• 1716 – închietura zidurilor “the joining of the walls” in the Mineiul.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A joint of the bones, where their ends meet and move; an articulation.^[5][3]
2. The part of the body at such a joint, such as the wrist.^[5][1]
3. A place where two or more objects, or the parts of an object or building, are fitted together.^[5][10]
4. (obsolete) A grammatical article.^[3][6]
5. (regional) A buttonhole.^[3]

Related words

• încheia
• încheiere
• cheotoare
• cheie

Usage notes

Încheietura mâinii is the wrist.^[1] The phrase a-i slăbi cuiva încheieturile means “to grow weak with age”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. încheietură
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1207
4. ^ a b c d 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. încheia
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 539
6. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. încheietúră
7. ^ 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 102:13
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Daniel 5:5
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 680
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. încheietură