album

Forms

album n (plural albumuri or albume)^[1] The plural is albume, less often albumuri.^[2][3] Beside albúm there was an old Transylvanian stress álbum, and a variant albom is recorded.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French album, with Latin album named beside it as a model.^{[4][3][2][5][6]} The French word first meant a notebook that a traveller carried and asked notable people to write a few wise words in and sign.^[4][7] French took it from German Album, which comes from album amicorum (“the friends' white book”).^[4][7] The Latin noun meant a white board for public notices and is the neuter of albus (“white”).^[4][8][9] The Transylvanian stress on the first syllable comes from German.^[4] Scriban also records a vulgar ⟨albón⟩, which he takes from the Russian word.^[10]

The word is thus a doublet of alb “white”, inherited from the same Latin adjective.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1830.^[4][5] The first sense was a notebook for verses, sayings or sketches: Negulici in 1848 defines it as a booklet of white paper in which travellers make their notes, and draughtsmen their sketches.^[11] Costache Negruzzi wrote „Copiez din albumul mieu” “I copy from my album”.^[5][12]

Semantic evolution

In 1870 Costinescu still described it as the book travellers carried for distinguished people to sign with a maxim.^[13] By 1931 CADE gives the second sense, a book of thick leaves for keeping photographs, postcards and stamps.^[14] The sense “a volume of illustrations on one theme”, as in album de artă, followed,^[2][12] and the most recent is the music album, a record or CD with several pieces by one performer.^[2][6][15] MDA2 also has a rare sense “list of names”,^[3] and underworld slang uses album for a criminal record.^[16]

Timeline

• 1830 – first record.^[4][5]
• 1848 – a travellers' and draughtsmen's notebook in Negulici's dictionary.^[11]
• 1870 – the travellers' book of signatures and maxims in Costinescu.^[13]
• 1886 – album “Stammbuch”, plural -uri, in Barcianu's dictionary.^[17]
• 1931 – a book for photographs, postcards and stamps in CADE.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An album: a book of special thick leaves for keeping photographs, postcards, stamps and the like: un album de familie;^[2][3] (dated) a notebook for verses, quotations or sketches.^[2][3]
2. A volume of photographs, illustrations or sketches on one theme: album de artă.^[2][3]
3. (music) A record or CD with several pieces, usually by the same performer or band.^[2][3]
4. (rare) A list of names.^[3][18]
5. (slang) A criminal record.^[16]

Related words

• alb
• Latin album

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 26
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 36
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. album
5. ^ 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. album
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. album
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 62
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
11. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. album
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 56
13. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 30
14. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
15. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. album
16. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu
17. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 16
18. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România