balenă

Forms

balenă f (plural balene)^[1] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 prints it in the transitional alphabet as баленъ.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin balaena (“whale”), a neologism, with French baleine as a second source.^[3][4][5][6] DELR names the Latin word, the French word and Italian balena as sources,^[7] Tiktin the Italian and French words,^[8] and the DA and Marcu & Maneca the Latin word alone (Marcu & Maneca compare the Italian one).^[9][10]

The Latin word, also spelled ballaena and ballēna, comes from Ancient Greek φάλλαινα (phállaina, “whale”).^[11][12] DELR, after Brüch (1910), says it may have passed through an Illyrian intermediary,^[7] and Beekes too takes the Latin ⟨b⟩ for Greek ⟨ph⟩ as a sign of a third language; he considers the Greek word Pre-Greek.^[13] Wiktionary calls Romanian afalin a doublet.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1756, with the sense “whale”.^[7] Tiktin's first record is in Șincai, around 1805.^[8] MDA2's first record is a poem by Costache Negruzzi, printed in 1872, about riding on whales through the foaming waves.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 describes it as the largest of fishes, whose bones serve for umbrellas and corsets.^[2] From the material came the sense of a flexible strip of whalebone, later also of plastic, that stiffens corsets, collars and umbrellas.^[3][4] The word also names a southern constellation,^[4][9] and colloquially a very fat person.^[3] In slang it is a fat woman and, among prisoners, the van that carries them.^[14]

The older Romanian word for the animal is chit.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1756 – the first record, “whale”.^[7]
• c. 1805 – in Șincai.^[8]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[2]
• 1862 – balenar “whaler”, formed after French baleinier.^[7]
• 1870 – balenieră “whaleboat”, from French baleinière.^[7]
• 1872 – in Costache Negruzzi's poems.^[4]
• 1890 – the diminutive balenuț “young whale”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A whale: a genus of very large sea mammals with horny plates instead of teeth;^[1] (dated) chit.^[3][4][1]
2. (colloquial) A very fat person.^[3][4]
3. A flexible strip of whalebone or plastic that stiffens corsets, collars and umbrellas.^[3][4]
4. (astronomy) The constellation Cetus, between Eridanus and Aquarius.^[4]

Word family

• balenieră
• balenar

Related words

• afalin
• Latin balaena

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 86
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 159
5. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. balenă
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. balenă
8. ^ 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. balenă
9. ^ 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. balenă
10. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
13. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. balenă