bloc

Forms

bloc n (plural blocuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bloc, also borrowed from German Block, a 19th-century loan.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu gives French alone.^[5] The French word comes from Middle Dutch bloc (“log, beam”),^[2][6] and DELR, after the EWN, sees in it two Germanic words run together, one related to Proto-Germanic *blukna- and to the word for “beam” and one to a verb “to close”.^[2] Kluge also links the German word to Balken (“beam”).^[7]

The sense “block of flats” is Romanian.^[2] DEX, the DN and NODEX trace it to German Blockhaus,^[8][9][10] and DELR explains how: in the interwar years blochaus (also written ⟨blockhaus⟩, ⟨block house⟩), a misreading of the German compound and of English blockhouse, which meant a small fort or a house of logs, was taken to mean a massive house holding many flats, and the Romanian word is its shortened form.^[2] DELR cites Graur for this view, and a phrase of 1929 that speaks of block dwellings supports it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1829, with the sense “block”, a large piece of matter.^[3] DELR's first record of the noun is of 1840, in Poenaru, Aaron and Hill's vocabulary.^[2] MDA2 quotes C. Sandu-Aldea's novel Două neamuri (1906), where men in white shirts looked like blocks of marble.^[4][11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a large solid piece of stone, metal or ice; from it came a mass of things taken as one, a pad of drawing paper (bloc de desen) and the adverbial în bloc “all together”.^[8][3][12] An alliance of states or parties was a sense by the time of the CADE (1931).^[12][8]

The building sense spread between the wars through blochaus, and is now the word's most common one.^[2][1] In the 20th century technical phrases were added: bloc motor “engine block”, bloc cardiac “heart block” and bloc operator “operating suite”.^[8][4] Older dictionaries also have a separate bloc (or blocus) “blockade”, from French blocus.^[13][2][14]

Timeline

• 1823 – the verb bloca “to block, blockade”, from French bloquer, in the forms blocarisi, plocarisi.^[2]
• 1829 – bloc “block”, the first record.^[3]
• 1829 – bloc (blocus) “blockade” and blocadă.^[2]
• 1840 – bloc in Poenaru, Aaron and Hill's vocabulary.^[2]
• 1906 – blocuri de marmoră “blocks of marble” in Sandu-Aldea.^[4][11]
• 1929 – locuințe blocuri “block dwellings”, a step towards the sense “block of flats”.^[2]
• 1943 – the diminutive bloculeț in Arghezi.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large block of a solid heavy material; a solid mass in one piece.^[8][4]
2. A heap of things of the same kind forming a unit;^[1] bloc de desen “drawing pad”;^[1] în bloc “all together”.^[8]
3. A large building with many floors, a block of flats;^[1] bloc-turn “tower block”.^[8][1]
4. An alliance of states, parties or groups pursuing common aims.^[8][4]
5. In set phrases: bloc motor “engine block”;^[9][10] (medicine) bloc cardiac “heart block”, bloc operator “operating suite”.^[8]

Word family

• bloca
• blocadă
• blocaj
• blochaus
• debloca
• monobloc
• bloculeț

Usage notes

DEX 2009 has one headword bloc with all the senses,^[8] while the DN and NODEX split it into separate words: the solid block from French, the building from German Blockhaus, and the alliance from French blocus.^[9][10] The old bloc “blockade” is a separate headword in MDA2.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. bloc
3. ^ 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. bloc
4. ^ 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, 217
5. ^ 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. bloc
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 134
8. ^ 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. 109
9. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. bloc
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. bloc
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 251
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. bloc
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 218
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 179