antenă

Forms

antenă f (plural antene)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin antenna, with French antenne as a second source: DELR and Tiktin put the Latin word first, DEX, MDA2 and Wiktionary the French one.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Marcu and Maneca also name Italian antenna.^[6]

The Latin word, an altered form of antemna, meant a ship's sail-yard; it is probably a borrowing of unknown origin.^[7][8] It survives in Romance as a sailing term: Old French antaine, Occitan antena, Spanish antena and Portuguese antena.^[9] Its use for the feelers of insects dates from the 15th century, and its use in wireless telegraphy is recent.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is from about 1805, in a work of Gheorghe Șincai.^[2][3] Negulici (1848) defines it as the long spar set across the mast to carry the sail, and in the plural as the horns of insects.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sailing sense appears in Ollănescu's translation of Horace, „Antenele gem toate” “the yards all groan”.^[10][3] DA (1913–1949) and CADE (1931) add the wire or rod of a radio or telegraph station.^[10][12] MDA2 dates the word only from the technical lexicon of 1949.^[5]

Recent senses are figurative: in the plural, colloquially, sources of information, and a branch or outpost of a central organization, such as a news or intelligence office.^[4][13][14] Slang uses it for an informer and, in the plural, for the ears.^[15] Scriban records a popular form adénă of the sailing word, which he takes from Modern Greek.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1805 – first record, in Gheorghe Șincai.^[2][3]
• 1848 – “sail-yard” and “horns of insects” in Negulici.^[11]
• 1931 – the radio antenna in CADE.^[12]
• 1991 – “outpost, branch office” in the press.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. (zoology) An antenna: a sensory appendage on the head of arthropods; a feeler.^[4][5]
2. A device of conductors that radiates or picks up electromagnetic waves: antenă colectivă “communal aerial”, antenă de cameră “indoor aerial”.^[4]
3. (nautical) A long movable spar fixed across the mast to hold part of the sails; a yard.^[4]
4. (colloquial, often plural) A source of information.^[4][5]
5. A branch or office detached from a central organization.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. antenă
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. antenă
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 45
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 68
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. antenă
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 498
10. ^ 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. antenă
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. antenă
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. antenă
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. antenă
14. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. antenă
15. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. antenă
16. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 105