baston

Forms

baston n (plural bastoane)^[1] Klein's dictionary of 1801 spells it Báston (printed with a long s), glossing it with Latin baculus.^[2] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) has bastonu, with the Italian bastone as its source.^[3] Ciorănescu lists baton as a variant, used almost only for a bar of chocolate, after French bâton de chocolat.^[4] Scriban calls baston in this sense a mistake for baton.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian bastone, as DER, DELR, MDA2, DEX and Tiktin agree.^{[4][6][7][8][9][1]} Ciorănescu adds that in the dialects it may have come through Modern Greek μπαστούνι (bastoúni) or Turkish.^[4] Scriban names French bâton beside the Italian word.^[5]

DELR traces the Italian word to Vulgar Latin *bastōnem, from Late Latin bastum, a word recorded once, in the 4th century, in the Historia Augusta, for an object used as a weapon.^[6] It may come from a Latin verb meaning “to support, carry”, from Ancient Greek βαστάζω (bastázō, “to lift, carry a burden”).^[6][1][10]

The same Italian word reached the Balkans: besides the Greek word, there are Turkish baston (from the Venetian form), Aromanian bãstune and Megleno-Romanian băstun.^{[10][11][12][13][14]} The Megleno-Romanian word came through Macedonian and Bulgarian.^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DA notes that the word is first recorded in the early 18th century as the nickname of a Moldavian boyar, Iordachi Rusăt Baston, in Ioan Canta's chronicle; this is MDA2's first record too.^[15][7] The onomastic dictionary dates the name to 1742.^[16] As a common noun DELR records it in a Bucharest document of 1726, for a walking stick held in the hand.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the walking stick, the word soon meant a stick to beat with and a beating: a text that the DA quotes from Hasdeu has „o bătu cu bastoane” “he beat her with sticks”, and Tiktin quotes the phrase from a manuscript of 1770.^[15][9] A document quoted by Tiktin and the DA uses it for an abbot's staff of office, given to the new abbots with their letter of appointment;^[9][15][7] MDA2 labels this church sense obsolete.^[9][15][7] Bastonul de mareșal was the staff of a marshal of France.^[15][17]

Other uses are smaller: a children's game de-a bastonul, which Alecsandri records, the thieves' slang baston desfundat “rifle” and the schoolchildren's word for the mark 1.^[15][7][18] Newer dictionaries add the stick used in gymnastics and a bar on board ship.^[19][20] Derivatives followed in the 19th century: bastonaș (1839), bastona “to beat with a stick” (1840), bastonadă (1851, from French) and bastonel (1862).^[6]

Timeline

• 1726 – baston “walking stick” in a Bucharest document.^[6]
• 1734 – a staff of office given to abbots, in a document.^[9]
• 1742 – Baston, the nickname of the Moldavian boyar Iordachi Rusăt, in Ioan Canta's chronicle.^[16][15]
• 1770 – „o bătu cu bastoane” in a manuscript.^[9]
• 1801 – Báston in Klein's dictionary.^[2]
• 1839 – the diminutive bastonaș.^[6]
• 1840 – bastona “to beat with a stick”.^[6]
• 1851 – bastonadă “beating with a stick”.^[6]
• 1862 – the diminutive bastonel in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A walking stick, cane: a long, thin stick, usually curved at one end, held in the hand as a support in walking: Bunicul nu mai iese fără baston.^[8][7][1]
2. Baston de mareșal: a marshal's baton, a short staff carried as a sign of rank.^[8][20]
3. A blow with a stick;^[8][7] (by extension) a beating.^[8][7]
4. (obsolete, church) A bishop's crozier.^[7][20]
5. (sport) A stick used in gymnastics, also in corrective exercises.^[20][19]
6. (nautical) A bar of metal or wood with various uses on board a ship.^[19][20]
7. (obsolete) A bar of chocolate or sugar; baton.^[7][21]
8. (school slang) The mark 1, the lowest mark.^[7][18]

Word family

• bastonadă
• bastonaș
• bastonel
• bastona

Related words

• Italian bastone

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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)
3. ^ 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.)
4. ^ a b c 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. baston
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 154
6. ^ 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. baston
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 168
8. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 91
9. ^ 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. bastón
10. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
11. ^ Eren, Hasan (1999), Türk Dilinin Etimolojik Sözlüğü, Ankara: Bizim Büro
12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
13. ^ 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
14. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–
15. ^ a b c d e f g 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. baston
16. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. baston
17. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 104
18. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. baston
19. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. baston
20. ^ a b c d e Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. baston
21. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 200