ținut

Forms

ținut n (plural ținuturi)^[1] Dosoftei has the old variant țânut: „Spune-mi … de ce neam ești și în ce țânut petreci” “tell me … of what people you are and in what land you dwell”.^[2][3] Besides the plural ținuturi, old texts have the plurals ținute and ținuture, and MDA2 records an old variant țenut.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is the past participle from Romanian ține (“to hold, to keep”) used as a noun.^{[5][6][4][2][1]} The verb continues Latin teneō (“to hold”).^[7] Scriban explains the noun as what is held “in possession”, and so a land under someone's rule.^[8] Șăineanu compared the Slavonic word for “realm”, which is formed on the verb “to hold” in the same way.^[9] Wiktionary sets beside it the participles Italian tenuto, French tenu and Catalan tingut.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), where the form ținrutul means the might of God: „Aceluia e slava și ținrutul în veacii veacilor, amin” “to him be the glory and the might for ever and ever, amen”.^[6][4] The Psaltirea Scheiană uses the plural for “possessions” in Psalm 2:8, where the Slavonic original has a noun meaning “possession”.^[2][10] A manuscript of 1591 already has the territorial sense: the village of Filipești lies „pre apa Oitudzului în ținutul Totrușului” “on the Oituz river, in the district of Trotuș”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the noun named many kinds of holding: belonging to someone, keeping a thing somewhere, memory in ținutul minte, restraint of the senses, the power of God and the right to dispose of people and goods.^[6][4] From power and rule it passed to what is ruled: an estate, a commune's land, the territory of a state and a part of a country.^[4][2] In Moldavia it became the name of the administrative unit that Wallachia called județ, the sense of the chronicles.^[5][8][11] Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders it with Latin “districtus, provincia”, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 with “regio” and “districtus”.^[12][13] In 1939 the word was revived for a larger unit of several counties under a royal resident.^[8] Today it means a region or tract of land in general.^[5][14] A regional sense is “a sharp pain, a stitch”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – ținrutul “might” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[4][6]
• 1570 – ținutul in Coresi's psalter, Psalm 15:6.^[15]
• c. 1573-1578 – ținuturile “possessions” in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 2:8.^[10][2]
• 1591 – ținutul Totrușului “the district of Trotuș” in a Moldavian manuscript.^[2]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it “districtus, provincia”.^[12]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it “regio” and “districtus”.^[13]
• 1939 – revived as the name of a unit of several counties.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) The act of holding or keeping.^[5][4]
2. A region, a tract of land with its own character.^[5][14]
3. (historical) In medieval Moldavia, an administrative district corresponding to the Wallachian județ.^[5][11]
4. (obsolete) A country.^[5]
5. (regional) A sharp pain in the body, a stitch.^[6][4]

Related words

• ține
• Latin teneō

Usage notes

The adjective ținut “held, kept; obliged” (nu sunt ținut să… “I am not bound to…”) is the participle of ține and belongs under that verb.^[11][3] ținută “attire, bearing” is a separate word, from French tenue.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ținut
3. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. ținut
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1342
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. 1163
6. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ținut
7. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
8. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1367
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 653
10. ^ 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 2:8
11. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 549
12. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 462
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 703
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ținut
15. ^ 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 15:6