bălțat

Forms

bălțat m or n (feminine singular bălțată, masculine plural bălțați, feminine/neuter plural bălțate)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin balteātus (“girded, belted”), with an early transferred sense of coloured bands or stripes.^[2][3][1] This is the view of Densusianu, Candrea and Densusianu, the DA and DEX, and DELR gives it first.^[2][4][5] The Latin adjective is formed on balteus (“belt, baldric”), which Varro took for an Etruscan word.^[2][6] Its Romance relatives come from a parallel *balteānus: Italian balzano, Old French bauçant and Occitan baussan, all said of piebald or white-marked horses.^[2][4]

Ciorănescu agrees that the adjective is usually taken straight from Latin, but notes that it could just as well be a regular derivative of bălța.^[7] DELR also records a derivation from balț (“band, lace; a bride's veil”), with the same shift from band to stripe, and Hasdeu's derivation from that verb.^[2] Rohr's proposal of a substrate word on the root Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“shining, white”) is listed by DELR as a possibility only.^[2] The Aromanian bãlțat (“wearing a balț on the head”) has another sense.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first in names: the place name Bălțați in a charter of 1425–1426, and the personal name Bălțatul in 1530.^[2][9] In Romanian texts it is printed in the Bucharest Bible of 1688, where it is said of goats: „tot ce nu va fi bălțat și alb întru capre” “all among the goats that is not spotted and white” (Genesis 30:33).^[9][10][11]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is of cattle and other animals whose coat is broken by large patches or bands of another colour, often lighter or white; the DA distinguishes it from the finer speckling of pestriț and tărcat.^[3][12] As a noun it became a name for such animals: Bălțatul for an ox, Bălțata for a cow.^[9][3]

Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 also give a sense “with a tooth out of line with the others”, which MDA2 lists as obsolete.^[13][14][11] From animals the word passed to clothes, fabrics and pictures in too many loud colours, and ironically to a person dressed without taste or in town clothes.^[5][11] A figurative sense “changeable, not to be trusted” is used of luck and of the world: „norocul lui e bălțat” “his luck is changeable”, recorded in 1873.^[9][11][15]

Romanian lent the word to its neighbours: Hungarian belc and a Ukrainian word for “motley” are traced to it.^[16][17] Ciorănescu adds Serbo-Croatian belcat (“white”), probably influenced by Slavic words for “white”.^[7]

Timeline

• 1425–1426 – the place name Bălțați, the first record.^[2][9]
• 1530 – the personal name Bălțatul.^[9]
• 1648 – the derivative bălțar “maker or seller of bands”, spelt bilțar.^[2]
• 1688 – bălțat of goats in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 30:33).^[9][10]
• 1801 – Baltzát in Klein's dictionary.^[13]
• 1849 – bălțătură “clash of colours; patch on an animal's coat”.^[2]
• 1870 – the verb bălța “to paint in clashing colours”.^[2]
• 1873 – the figurative norocul lui e bălțat “his luck is changeable”.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of animals: having hair or feathers of different colours, with stripes or patches of another colour; piebald.^[5][11][1]
2. Of clothes, fabrics, pictures: in many loud colours, coloured without taste; gaudy.^[5][18]
3. (ironic) Of people: dressed without taste;^[5][11] (popular) dressed in town clothes.^[5][11]
4. (figurative) Of luck, the world: changeable, not to be relied on.^[11][9]

Word family

• bălța
• bălțătură
• bălțățel

Related words

• balț
• îmbălța
• Aromanian bãlțat
• Latin balteātus

Usage notes

The phrase a umbla după boi bălțați means “to go about aimlessly”.^[18] As a noun it names a piebald animal, and Bălțat is also a surname, recorded in Maramureș from the 15th century.^[3][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. bălțat
3. ^ 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. bălțat
4. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 132
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 95
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b 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. balț
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 197
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bălțat
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
11. ^ 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. 1, 181
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 215
13. ^ 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)
14. ^ 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.)
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 52
16. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. bălțat
17. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. bălțat
18. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. bălțat