calendar

Forms

calendar n (plural calendare)^[1] The older popular form călindar (also calindariu) appears in an 18th-century historical text: „Frâncii au aflat calindariul cel nou, lăsând calindariul cel vechiu” “the Franks found the new calendar and left the old one”.^[2] The form cărindar, taken over from the word for January, is used of almanacs in Conachi: „propoveduiesc cărindarele” “the almanacs foretell”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from New Latin calendārium, a learned word with several possible sources, a case of what Romanian lexicography calls multiple etymology: DELR names the Latin word, Modern Greek καλαντάρι (kalantári) (also καλεντάρι (kalentári)) and Italian calendario.^[4] DEX and MDA2 give only the Latin word, the DN and DLRM the Italian one with the Latin as a model, and Tiktin the Latin and the Greek.^[5][6][7][3] Ciorănescu thinks the Greek word came in through the Church and became a popular word.^[8] The DA takes the Church Latin word and says it entered the language early.^[2] Gabinschi sees an international word of Latin origin, taken from Italian, German and Russian.^[9]

Latin calendārium is formed on calendae (“the first day of the month”), which Wiktionary derives from calō (“to call out”).^[1] Romanian also inherited the Latin adjective as cărindar “January”, a doublet of this word.^[1][10] Tiktin notes that the old form călindar is a loan too, as its /l/ shows, but may owe its more Romanian shape to the word for January;^[3] DELR explains the variant ⟨cărindar⟩ “calendar” in the same way.^[4] Aromanian has calindar, which Pascu derives from the Greek word.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1655.^[4] Tiktin's first record is in Miron Costin's chronicle (1675), in the sense of the reckoning of time: peace was made „Septemvrie în 29 pe calendarul nostru, iar pre a Papistașilor este Octomvrie 9” “on 29 September by our calendar, which is 9 October by the Papists'”.^[3][2][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the system of dividing the year, above all the Julian calendar of the Orthodox Church against the Gregorian one of the Catholics.^[2] From it came the printed table of days, months and saints' days, and the yearly almanac with stories and practical advice.^[2] DEX describes the almanac as widely read in the past.^[5] Tiktin quotes the title of a Brașov calendar of 1733, announced as the first in Romanian.^[3]

The popular form călindar survives in idioms: a face cuiva capul calendar “to make someone's head spin with talk”, used by Creangă.^[3][5] MDA2 records regional senses: in the form cărindar “January”, and a mocking verse tale about someone's faults, like the stories in almanacs.^[6] Recent dictionaries add a programme of planned activities.^[13]

Timeline

• 1655 – the first record DELR gives.^[4]
• 1675 – calendarul nostru “our calendar” in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[3]
• 1733 – a calendar printed at Brașov, announced as the first in Romanian.^[3]
• 1865 – the adjective calendaristic, from Italian.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A calendar: a system of dividing time into years, months and days, based on regular astronomical events;^[5][14] calendarul iulian, calendarul gregorian.^[5][14]
2. A table, book or diary showing the days and months of a year in order.^[5][6]
3. An almanac: a yearly publication, widely read in the past, with the days of the year and various informative and literary texts.^[5][1]
4. A schedule of planned activities: calendarul competițiilor.^[13]

Word family

• calendaristic

Related words

• cărindar
• colindă
• Aromanian calindar
• Latin calendae

Usage notes

Two idioms are in common use: a face (cuiva) capul calendar “to confuse someone with too much talk” and a se uita ca mâța-n calendar “to stare at something without understanding it”.^[5][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. calendar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. calendár
4. ^ a b c d e 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. calendar
5. ^ 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. 134
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 279
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. calendar
8. ^ 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. calendar
9. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 75
10. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 160
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 241
12. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 21
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. calendar
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. calendar