cale

Forms

cale f (plural căi)^[1] Besides the plural căi, MDA2 records a regional plural cai and an old plural căli, with old genitives calei and caliei.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin callis (“mountain path, track”).^[3][4][2][1] The Latin word meant a rough track or path; the DA glosses it “path through mountains or woods”.^[5][6] De Vaan links it with callum (“hard skin”), a connection Walde–Hofmann and Ernout–Meillet reject; its origin is uncertain.^[7][8]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian cale, Megleno-Romanian cali and Istro-Romanian cåle.^{[4][3][9][10]} Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian cale, Italian calle, Venetian cale, Catalan call and Spanish calle.^[4][11] Romanian and Dalmatian share the extra sense “time, occurrence”.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to about 1500, with the sense “road, direction, way”.^[3] Tiktin has a record of 1528, and MDA2 cites the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) as its first record.^[12][2] The early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki already has calea many times, beginning with the first psalm.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the original Romanian cale as a path through the mountains, which became the general word for any road in the mountain life of the Romanians' ancestors.^[6] When the word drum entered the language it competed with cale, which today is used mostly for a long, wide road and in set phrases and figurative senses.^[6] A document of 1603 from Vâlcea names calea carului, a road for carts.^[6] The figurative senses “way, means, method” and the phrases cu cale “fitting, proper” and a pune la cale “to arrange” are old;^[14][11] Cihac already lists them.^[14][11]

In Oaș and Maramureș de o cale gave the adverb docale “at once, one time”, recorded from 1906; the Aromanian word also means “time, occurrence”.^[3][9] Ciorănescu notes that the word passed into Modern Greek καλειά (kaleiá), used in a few fixed phrases for “going on one's way”.^[4] The street names of Bucharest gave the slang calist, a man who strolls along the Calea Victoriei.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the sense “road, way”.^[3]
• early 16th century – calea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[13]
• 1528 – a record cited by Tiktin.^[12]
• 1561 – the derivative călător “traveller”.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – cale in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1603 – calea carului “the cart road” in a document from Vâlcea.^[6]
• 1639 – călători “to travel”.^[3]
• 1643 – călătorie “journey”.^[3]
• 1825 – the diminutives călicea and călicioară.^[3]
• 1892 – calea-valea “so-so, never mind”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A road or way: a strip of ground made for people, vehicles and animals to travel on;^[15][1] cale ferată “railway”; in names, a long, wide street (Calea Victoriei).^[15][1]
2. A journey;^[15] Cale bună! “Have a good trip!”^[15]
3. distance: cale de o zi “a day's journey”.^[15]
4. (medicine) A tract or passage of the body: căile respiratorii “the respiratory tract”.^[15]
5. (figurative) A direction or course taken by a development or action.^[15]
6. A means, method or procedure: pe cale amiabilă “amicably, out of court”;^[15] (law) cale de atac “legal remedy, appeal”.^[15]
7. (computing) A path.^[1]

Word family

• călători
• călătorie
• călicea
• călișoară
• călător
• docale

Related words

• drum
• stradă
• Aromanian cale
• Latin callis

Usage notes

Common phrases: din cale-afară “exceedingly”, a găsi cu cale “to see fit”, a pune la cale “to plan, arrange”, a fi pe cale să “to be about to”, a sta în calea cuiva “to stand in someone's way” and Calea Laptelui or Calea Lactee “the Milky Way”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 278
3. ^ 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. cale
4. ^ a b c d e 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. cale
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e 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. cale
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 240
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 56
11. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1520
12. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cale
13. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 1:1
14. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 37
15. ^ 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. 134