călător

Forms

călător m or n (feminine singular călătoare, masculine plural călători, feminine/neuter plural călătoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is usually explained as formed from Romanian cale (“road, way”) + -ător “one who is on the road”.^[2][3][1] The Academy dictionary calls it an old derivative, since Aromanian has it too, and thinks it was probably modelled on Albanian udhëtar (“traveller”) from udhë (“road”), comparing Megleno-Romanian drumător “traveller” from drum “road”, which likewise has no verb beside it.^[4] Pușcariu (article 262 of his Latin dictionary) proposed the same Albanian model.^[5] cale itself is from Latin callis (“path”).^[6]

Ciorănescu finds the derivation difficult, because the suffix -tor normally forms nouns from verbs, and such a noun does not normally give a verb such as călători.^[5] He suggests that the link with the word for road may have been made later by popular feeling, and that the word could come instead from a verb formed on Latin caballus (“horse”), such as Vulgar Latin *caballō or *caballitō on the model of equitō, so that it first meant “one who rides”; he compares German reisen (“to travel”) and reiten (“to ride”).^[5] Tiktin took it as the verbal adjective of a lost verb ⟨*căla⟩, from Latin callō, itself from the Latin noun; the verb derived from the noun then took the lost verb's place.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Coresi's Praxiu of 1563.^[7] Vasile Lupu's Pravila of 1646 uses the plural călătorii for travellers watering at roadside troughs.^[4][3] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss words for “wayfarer” with it from about 1660.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The adjective “travelling” and the noun “traveller” have existed side by side from the old texts on.^[7][4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders calatoriu with viātor (“traveller”).^[9] The adjective spread to migrating animals and peoples: păsări călătoare are birds that winter in warmer lands, and Eminescu wrote of nații călătoare “wandering nations”.^[4][10] Figuratively it says that something passes quickly, like time or a feeling.^[3][2]

Proverbs keep the old word: baba călătoare n-are sărbătoare “the old woman on the road keeps no holiday”, that is, a traveller is excused from the Church's rules,^[4][7] and călătorului îi șade bine cu drumul “the traveller is best on his way”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1563 – first record, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[7]
• 1646 – călătorii “travellers” in Vasile Lupu's Pravila.^[4][3]
• c. 1660 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[8]
• 1688 – the verb călători in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]
• 1801 – calatoriu “traveller” in Klein's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A traveller, a person who travels or is on a journey; a passenger.^[2][11]

Adjective

1. Travelling, on a journey.^[2][3]
2. Of peoples: nomad, nomadic.^[2]
3. Of birds: migratory;^[2][11] porumbel călător “homing pigeon”.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) Passing quickly, fleeting, fickle.^[2][3]

Word family

• călători
• călătorie
• călătorit
• călătoreț

Related words

• cale
• drumeț
• Albanian udhëtar

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 156
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 319
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. călător
5. ^ 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. călător
6. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main
7. ^ 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. călător
8. ^ a b 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. călător
9. ^ 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), p. 323
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. călător
11. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 357