șosea

Forms

șosea f (plural șosele)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French chaussée (“roadway”), a word Tiktin calls common to the European languages.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The French word, first Old French chauciee about 1155, comes from Vulgar Latin *calciāta, short for ⟨calciata via⟩ “shod road”.^[1] Its base is disputed: Latin calx “lime”, since the Romans used lime mortar under some roads, or its homonym “heel”, through the verb “to tread on”.^[1] Scriban explains it as a road “shod” or covered.^[1][7]

Russian, Polish, German and Yiddish took the same French word; Gagauz şösä may come from Russian, Ottoman Turkish or Romanian.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1824.^[4] MDA2 and the DLR start with a bulletin of 1833 on the labourers to be levied for building a bridge or a road: „pentru facirea unui pod sau şose”.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The word named a built, metalled road outside towns; Șăineanu notes that such roads began to be made in Romania only after 1830.^[8] In Bucharest Șoseaua Kisseleff, or just Șoseaua, was the avenue between gardens where fashionable society used to meet.^[4] Șăineanu also gives the senses “roadway of a street, as against the pavement” and “embankment along a river”, as in French.^[8] Today it is above all an interurban road, and by extension a wide street at the entrance to a town;^[8] șosea națională and șosea comunală are terms of road administration.^[6][3]

Timeline

• 1824 – first record cited by Tiktin.^[4]
• 1833 – şose in a bulletin on road works, MDA2's first record.^[5][3]
• after 1830 – the first metalled roads are built in the country, according to Șăineanu.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A highway or main road between towns, paved with stones or asphalt.^[6][3]
2. A wide street at the entrance to a town that continues an interurban road.^[6][3]
3. (in set phrases) Șosea națională: a road linking the main centres of the country, kept up by the central administration;^[9] șosea comunală: a road linking several communes.^[6]

Word family

• șoselui

Related words

• French chaussée

Usage notes

The word has many colloquial and regional variants: MDA2 lists soșea, sușea, șușea, șoșea, șușauă and others, and Tiktin șoseáuă, șoșá, sușá.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. șosea
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1118
4. ^ 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. șoseá
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șoseá
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1092
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1285
8. ^ a b c d Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 605
9. ^ 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. orizont