baltă

Forms

baltă f (plural bălți)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain, and the dictionaries divide between a pre-Roman word and an early Slavic loan.^[2][3][1] DELR thinks it probably a substrate word and compares Albanian baltë (“mud, mire”), with the DA, Capidan, Scriban, Ciorănescu, Poghirc, Russu, Brâncuș and Mihăilă.^[2] Ciorănescu too finds the native origin the more probable, from an Indo-European root also seen in Lithuanian balà, Old High German pfuol and Old English pōl; on this view a form of the Illyrian language gave both Romanian and baljtë, Lombard palta, Piedmontese pauta and the Greek forms Modern Greek βάλτη (váltī), Modern Greek μπάλτα (bálta) and Modern Greek βάλτος (váltos).^[3]

The older view takes it from Old Church Slavonic блато (blato), the word of Bulgarian блато (blato), Czech bláto, Polish błoto and Russian болото (boloto);^[3][2][4] Miklosich, Cihac, Roesler, Philippide, Tiktin's first edition and the CADE held it.^[3][2][4] The metathesis of /bla/ to /bal/ that this needs is unlikely in Romanian, so Skok, Nandriș, Sandfeld and Vaillant started from a Slavic stage before the metathesis of liquids and the change of /a/ to /o/, the forerunner of Proto-Slavic *bolto (“swamp”).^[3][2] Ciorănescu objects that this older form has left no trace in the modern Slavic languages, whose forms with /bal-/ (in Ruthenian and Bulgarian) come from Romanian.^[3] DEX 2009 and MDA2 still give the Slavonic word, with the Albanian one as a comparison.^[5][6]

For the word's presence in the Balkans before the Slavs, DELR adduces the Thracian place name Ancient Greek Δεβελτός (Develtós), perhaps “two marshes”, by a lake on the Gulf of Burgas; Dalmatian balta and the Greek forms, borrowed without the Slavic metathesis; and a pre-Roman *palta in Occitan pauto of Béarn and in Italian pantano and Spanish pantano.^[2][7] Pascu cites the Dalmatian word from Kotor in 1331.^[8] The Slavic word has relatives without /t/ in other northern Indo-European languages, and Wiktionary derives it from Proto-Balto-Slavic “white”, ultimately Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to shine, white”).^[2][1] Kriaras and Babiniotis derive the masculine Greek noun from Slavic, recording it from the 12th century, whereas Ciorănescu reports the Greek form with initial /mb/ as a loan from Romanian.^[9][10][3]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian baltã, Megleno-Romanian baltă and Istro-Romanian båtę (Ciorănescu writes bote).^{[2][3][11][12]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name, Baltahaza, in a Transylvanian record of 1366.^[2][13] As a common noun it appears in the Psaltirea Scheiană of about 1573–1578.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin orders the senses by size: a lake, as in Cantemir's description of the great lakes of Moldavia (Balta Orheiului, Balta Dorohoiului); a pond or marsh, such as the fish ponds sold in a Iași deed of 1655; and a puddle, even one of spilt wine.^[13] In particular, bălțile are the wide marshes along the Danube and the Prut, hence the Muntenian phrase de la baltă până la munte “from one end of the country to the other”.^[13][3]

Stagnant water gave the figurative a rămâne baltă “to be left undone, to stagnate”, which Cihac compared with Latin stagnare.^[4][5] Popular phrases include a da cu bâta în baltă “to make a gaffe” and are balta pește “he has the means”;^[6] ăl din baltă is a popular name of the devil.^[6] Megleno-Romanian has place names formed with the word.^[14]

Timeline

• 1366 – the place name Baltahaza, the first record.^[2][13]
• c. 1573–1578 – baltă as a common noun in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2][6]
• 1655 – bălți de pește “fish ponds” in a Iași deed.^[13]
• c. 1660 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[15]
• 1688 – bălți de ape in the Bucharest Bible (Isaiah 41:18).^[16][13]
• 1718–1729 – băltos “marshy”.^[2]
• 1759–1765 – băltoacă “puddle” in a lexicon by Maior.^[2]
• 1879 – băltărie “marshland”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pond or marsh: a shallow stretch of standing water with its own plants and animals; a floodplain where water stagnates; by extension a lake: a rămâne baltă “to be abandoned, to stagnate”;^[5][6] a lăsa baltă “to drop (something)”;^[5][6] a da cu bâta în baltă “to say or do something tactless”.^[5][6]
2. A puddle of rainwater; a hole full of water or mud; by exaggeration a large amount of spilt liquid; băltoacă.^[5][1]

Word family

• băltac
• băltăci
• băltăreț
• băltărie
• băltău
• bălti
• băltică
• băltoacă
• băltos

Related words

• Aromanian baltã
• Albanian baltë

Usage notes

The plural is bălți, in old texts also balte and regionally belți.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. baltă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. baltă
4. ^ a b c Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 7
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. 87
6. ^ 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, 161
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6177
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 189
9. ^ Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr, p. s.v. βάλτος
10. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 255
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 191
12. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 58
13. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. baltă
14. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 32
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. baltă
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Isaiah 41:18