alarmă

Forms

alarmă f (plural alarme)^[1] DELR records an obsolete neuter variant alarm.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French alarme and also borrowed from Italian allarme, according to DELR and Tiktin.^[2][3] DEX and MDA2 name French alone.^[4][5] The Italian word is the military command all'arme (“to arms!”), with arme, the old plural of arma (“weapon”), and French took it from Italian.^[2][6][1] Italian has the cry from before 1348, in Giovanni Villani, and the one-word spelling from 1723.^[6]

The same Italian word reached Romanian by another route as larmă “uproar”: Ciorănescu takes it from German Alarm through Slavic (Polish larma, Serbo-Croatian larma) or Hungarian lárma, and calls the present word its doublet.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is a calendar printed in Vienna in 1794, and Tiktin gives the same year.^[2][3] The first sense was the military one, a call to arms or a signal announcing the enemy.^[5][8]

Semantic evolution

From the call to arms the word widened to any signal of danger, and figuratively to the fear it causes.^[8][5] Eminescu wrote of alarm bells sounding hoarsely, „clopote de-alarmă răsună răgușit”, a line Tiktin and the DA quote.^[3][8] Șăineanu gives both senses in 1929: a cry or signal calling to arms, and sudden fright.^[9] The 20th century added alarmă aeriană “air-raid warning”.^[10]

DELR dates the family: alarmist from 1840, the verb alarma from 1851 and alarmant from 1876, all from French.^[2]

Timeline

• 1794 – in a calendar printed in Vienna, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1840 – the derivative alarmist.^[2]
• 1851 – the verb alarma, in Stamati's dictionary.^[2]
• 1876 – alarmant in Eminescu.^[2]
• 1958 – alarmă aeriană “air-raid warning” in the DLRM.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An alarm: the announcing of a danger or disaster threatening people; the signal that announces it: a da alarma “to raise the alarm”.^[4][5]
2. A call to arms; in garrisons and camps, the signal for the troops to assemble with their equipment.^[5]
3. anxiety, fear or panic at the approach of a danger.^[4][5]

Word family

• alarma
• alarmant
• alarmist

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. alarmă
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. alarmă
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 24
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 33
6. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. allarme
7. ^ 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. larmă
8. ^ a b c 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. alarmă
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 15
10. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 17