bombă

Forms

bombă f (plural bombe)^[1] The old form boambă is in Neculce's chronicle: „Și au început (moscalii) a arunca și boambe” “and the Muscovites began to throw bombs too”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian bomba for Ciorănescu, DELR and Tiktin, and DELR adds that it came in also through Polish bomba, German Bombe, Russian бомба (bomba) and French bombe.^[4][5][2] DEX, MDA2, NODEX and MDN give only the French word, DN the French and the Italian ones, and Wiktionary French and German.^[6][3][7][1]

The Italian word is recorded from 1623.^[8] Nocentini and DELR connect it with an imitative base ⟨bomb-⟩ for a loud noise, which DELR finds in Medieval Latin in the 16th century.^[9][5] Kluge and Pfeifer derive it from Latin bombus (“a dull noise”), from Ancient Greek βόμβος (bómbos), an imitative word; the DHLF leaves both views open.^[10][11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1694.^[5][2] MDA2's first record is Neculce's chronicle, with the plural boambe for the projectiles thrown by the Russian army.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The old bomb was a hollow iron ball filled with gunpowder that a cannon fired;^[13][6] DEX now puts the bomb dropped from aircraft first and the cannon shell second.^[13][6] Șăineanu (1929) already has the figurative sense of a sudden, frightening piece of news, and CADE the phrase a cădea ca o bombă “to come like a bombshell”.^[14][13] In slang it means a low tavern or dive;^[4][15] Ciorănescu thinks this sense may be connected with French faire la bombe “to go on a spree”.^[4][15] In sport it names a hard shot at goal.^[6]

DELR dates the family: bombardă, a medieval siege engine, from 1746–1763, from Italian bombarda; bombarda from 1792, from French bombarder, with variants from Greek and German; bombardier from 1816; bombardament from 1825–1829.^[5]

Timeline

• 1694 – the first record.^[5][2]
• 1746–1763 – bombardă.^[5]
• 1792 – the verb bombarda, in the form bombardisi.^[5]
• 1816 – bombardier.^[5]
• 1825–1829 – bombardament.^[5]
• 1973 – the diminutive bombiță.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bomb: a projectile with an explosive or incendiary charge dropped from an aircraft, (rare) a cannon shell: bombă atomică.^[6][1]
2. bombă vulcanică: a lump of lava thrown out of a crater and rounded in the air, a volcanic bomb.^[6]
3. bombă calorimetrică: a strong metal vessel for measuring the heat of combustion of a substance.^[6]
4. (sport) A hard shot at goal.^[6]
5. (figurative, slang) A piece of sensational news: a cădea ca o bombă “to come as a bombshell”.^[6][13]
6. (slang) A low tavern, a dive.^[6][15]

Word family

• bombarda
• bombardament
• bombardă
• bombardier
• bombiță
• bomba

Usage notes

A regional bombă “grape berry” is recorded by Pisone (1865) and in Bessarabian speech.^[16][17] In Moldavia boambă also meant a ball for skittles.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bombă
3. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 229
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. bombă
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. bombă
6. ^ 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. 112
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. bombă
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
11. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
12. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
13. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. bombă
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 72
15. ^ a b c Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. bombă
16. ^ Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 52
17. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. bombă