țigară

Forms

țigară f (plural țigări)^[1] The western form is țigare, which is still common: „cu o țigare scumpă și cu o cafea cu caimac” “with an expensive cigarette and a coffee with cream” (Zamfirescu).^[2][3] Regional variants are țiglară and țiglare in Maramureș and sigară in Transylvania, with a regional plural țigheri.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Zigarre (“cigar”).^{[5][4][6][2][1]} The German word is from Spanish cigarro, which Kluge and Pfeifer trace to a Maya word for rolled tobacco leaves;^[7][8] Pfeifer adds that the German singular grew in the 1820s out of the plural.^[7][8] Scriban also compared the Russian word, French cigare and Italian sigaro.^[3]

The German word meant the cigar; the Romanian word came to mean the cigarette.^[7][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1810.^[6] The DLR cites it next from the French–Romanian vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[2] MDA2's first record is Costinescu's dictionary of 1870.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the cigar the word passed to the small roll of tobacco in thin paper; the cigar itself is the țigară de foi “leaf cigarette”, regionally țigară de frunză, and the cigar from Cuba a țigară de Havana.^[4][5] Scriban noted in 1939 that the cigar was smoked more in America and the north of Europe, the paper cigarette in Romania, Russia and the south.^[3] Eminescu wrote „Un regat pentr-o țigară” “a kingdom for a cigarette”.^[2]

Popular phrases are a bea o țigară “to smoke” and a suci o țigară “to roll a cigarette”; regionally cât ai bea o țigară means “in no time”.^[4][9] There were also medicinal cigarettes of deadly nightshade (mătrăgună) or other plants, smoked against asthma.^[4] Since the 1970s pantaloni țigară are trousers tight at the bottom.^[10]

Timeline

• 1810 – țigară, the first record.^[6]
• 1840s – the French–Romanian vocabulary of Poenaru, Aaron and Hill.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary.^[4][2]
• 1931 – țigară de foi “cigar” in the CADE.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cigarette: a small roll of thin paper filled with cut tutun, lit at one end and smoked through the other.^[5][4][1]
2. țigară de foi: a cigar, a roll of tobacco leaves wrapped one over another; trabuc.^[5][4]
3. (regional) A cigarette paper.^[4]

Related words

• țigaretă
• trabuc
• German Zigarre

Usage notes

The genitive-dative is țigării, the plural țigări.^[12] Scriban gave țigară as the eastern and țigare as the western form.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. țigară
3. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1365
4. ^ 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. 2, 1334
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1161
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. țigară
7. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 1010
8. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 539
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. țigară
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. țigară
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. țigară