armă

Forms

armă f (plural arme)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin arma (“weapon”), from Latin arma (“arms, weapons”).^{[1][2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin neuter plural became a feminine singular in Late Latin, and the Romance languages continue that noun.^[1][7] DÉRom reconstructs it as a Proto-Romance feminine noun meaning “weapon”.^[8] De Vaan derives the Latin noun from Proto-Indo-European *h₂er- (“to fit, join”), through a form meaning “fitting”.^[9][1]

It survives in Aromanian armã and Istro-Romanian ǫrmę.^{[2][10][11][8]} Its cognates include Italian arma, Sardinian arma, French arme, Spanish arma and Portuguese arma, and the Latin word also passed into Albanian armë.^[2][5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500, in the sense “weapon”.^[12][8] The Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record, says of God: „Se nu vă întoarsetu, arma sa va ascuți” “if you do not turn, he will whet his sword” (Psalm 7).^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The derivative armaș, an official of the princely court, appears even earlier, in Slavonic documents of 1456–1459.^[12] The verb arma “to arm” is recorded in Cantemir in 1717–1723;^[12][2] DELR gives both Latin armō and a Romanian derivative as its source.^[12][2] Several neighbours are borrowings: armată “army”, first in Miron Costin in 1675, from Polish and Italian, and armament from French in 1869.^[12]

In modern Romanian the word also names a branch of the armed forces, and in the plural the arms of a coat of arms;^[13][4] Tiktin marks the heraldic sense as a neologism.^[13][4] Figuratively it is any means of struggle, for instance in politics or in debate.^[4][14] In Aromanian armã also means “finery, ornament”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1456–1459 – the derivative armaș in Slavonic documents.^[12]
• c. 1500 – armă “weapon” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12][8]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][5]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1675 – armată “army” in Miron Costin.^[12]
• 1717–1723 – the verb arma in Cantemir.^[12]
• 1869 – armament in Kogălniceanu.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A weapon: an object, device or machine used in fighting, in hunting or in some sports: armă albă “bladed weapon”, armă de foc “firearm”.^[4][3][1]
2. In military commands, the rifle.^[3][1]
3. A branch of the armed forces, trained and equipped for one kind of fighting.^[4]
4. In the plural, armament.^[4]
5. (figurative) A means of fighting an opponent, in ideas or politics: Umorul era singura lui armă.^[4]
6. In the plural, the signs on a coat of arms.^[4][13]

Word family

• arma
• armaș
• armărie
• armășel
• armășie

Related words

• armată
• armătură
• armament
• Aromanian armã

Usage notes

A fi sub arme means “to do military service”, and a depune armele “to lay down one's arms, to surrender”.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. armă
3. ^ 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, 99
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 62
5. ^ a b c d 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. armă
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 650
7. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. armă
8. ^ a b c d e Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom, p. s.v. arma
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 145
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 121
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. armă
13. ^ 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. armă
14. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. armă
15. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. armă