calc

Forms

calc n (plural calcuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French calque.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DELR traces the French word to Italian calco, from calcare (“to tread; to press the outlines of a drawing onto another surface”), from Latin calcō (“to tread”);^[2][1] Wiktionary calls the French noun a deverbal of calquer, itself borrowed from Italian.^[2][1] The DN and the DLRM also point to the Italian word.^[4][6]

The Latin verb is also the source of călca “to tread; to iron”, and Scriban notes that the Romanian verb was also used in the sense of the French one, “to trace”.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the noun to 1871, in the senses “tracing paper” and “a loan translation”, and dates the verb calchia “to trace” to the same year.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the transparent paper and the copy made with it: Șăineanu and CADE define a drawing reproduced through transparent paper, and Scriban and Șăineanu add the figurative sense of a close or servile copy.^[8][9][7] In linguistics it names a loan translation or a semantic loan, the meaning a native word takes after a foreign model; the DLRLC's example is lume, which took the sense “light” after Slavonic svet.^[10][3] Its family grew with the verb decalca (1894), the noun decalc (1940), decalcomanie (1957) and the linguistic term semicalc (1966).^[2]

Timeline

• 1871 – calc “tracing paper; loan translation” and the verb calchia.^[2]
• 1894 – the verb decalca “to trace”.^[2]
• 1940 – decalc “a copy on tracing paper”.^[2]
• 1957 – decalcomanie “decal transfer”.^[2]
• 1966 – semicalc, a linguistic term.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In hârtie de calc: tracing paper, a translucent paper used for ink drawings that are then copied onto ozalid paper.^[3][11]
2. A tracing: the copy of a drawing made on tracing paper; decalc.^[3][4]
3. (linguistics) A calque: giving new senses to existing words after a foreign model, or forming new words and phrases by translating the parts of foreign ones; a loan translation or semantic loan.^[3][10]

Word family

• calchia
• decalc
• decalca
• decalcomanie
• semicalc

Related words

• călca
• French calque
• Latin calcō

Usage notes

The word has the plural calcuri.^[3] The form calc “I tread” of the verb călca is a separate word, inherited from Latin.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. calc
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 133
4. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 107
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 217
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 92
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. calc
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 314
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional