carantină

Forms

carantină f (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

Its immediate source is disputed.^[2][3] Wiktionary, Tiktin and the DA give borrowed from French quarantaine,^[1][4][5] while DEX 2009 and the DLRM give borrowed from Russian карантин (karantin), which the DLRM traces to French.^[6][7] Ciorănescu takes the French word and compares the Turkish and Russian ones.^[8] DELR lists a Turkish source (after Suciu), French and Italian, and Russian, and notes that the Italian word for quarantine is Italian quarantena.^[2] Scriban had derived it from quarantina.^[9]

Graur argued in 1963 that the French word does not explain the vowel /i/ before the ending and the Russian word does not explain the feminine gender. Bulgarian карантина (karantina) matches the Romanian form exactly and Greek has Modern Greek καραντίνα (karantína), but he found the most probable source of the /i/ in Turkish.^[3] He grouped it with chenzină and duzină, also made from numerals.^[3] The Turkish word karantina is from Italian.^[10][11]

The French noun is formed on quarante (“forty”) and its medical sense copies the Italian word;^[1] the numeral goes back to Latin quadrāgintā (“forty”).^[2] The name comes from the forty days the isolation lasted at first.^[5][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1789, from Vascenco's study of the Russian words in Mihail Strilbițchi's prints.^[2][4] The sense was the isolation of travellers and goods coming from a region with an epidemic.^[2] MDA2's first record is Alecu Beldiman's Tragedia of 1821.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes a stay of forty days, later often shorter, that travellers, objects and goods from a country with cholera or plague had to spend on a ship or in a lazaret at the border.^[5] Tiktin records a face carantină “to keep quarantine” and a transferred sense, a place where suspects were locked up: a ține la carantină “to keep in custody”.^[4] Costinescu still spelled it quarantină in 1870.^[13]

The figurative a pune la carantină “to isolate, to keep at a distance” is in Scriban and CADE.^[9][14] Modern dictionaries add the plant-health and veterinary measures (carantină fitosanitară).^[6][15] In slang it is a newcomer to a gang or a prisoner just brought in.^[16]

Timeline

• 1789 – first record, in one of Strilbițchi's prints.^[2][4]
• 1821 – Beldiman's Tragedia.^[12]
• 1870 – Costinescu spells it quarantină, a forty-day stay at the border.^[13]
• 1931 – CADE records the figurative a pune pe cineva în carantină “to keep someone at a distance”.^[14]
• 2007 – the prison and gang slang senses.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sanitary post where people, ships or goods coming from a region with an epidemic are examined and isolated.^[6]
2. Preventive isolation of a person or group that has been in contact with a contagious patient or comes from an epidemic region;^[6][12] carantină fitosanitară, measures against plant diseases and pests; restrictions against animal diseases.^[6][12]
3. (figurative) Isolation, exclusion.^[6][9]
4. (slang) A newcomer to a gang; a prisoner newly brought into a jail.^[16]

Related words

• chenzină
• duzină
• patruzeci

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. carantină
3. ^ a b c Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. carantină
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. carantină
5. ^ a b c 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. carantină
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 144
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 116
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. carantină
9. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 231
10. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, p. 127
11. ^ Eren, Hasan (1999), Türk Dilinin Etimolojik Sözlüğü, Ankara: Bizim Büro, p. 210
12. ^ 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, 295
13. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 390
14. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. carantină
15. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. carantină
16. ^ a b c Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. carantină