cheie

Forms

cheie f (plural chei)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin clāvis (“key”), from the accusative clāvem, a word kept by the Romance languages.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} DELR records an older form ⟨cleie⟩ in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis of about 1650.^[2] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cljaie and the Megleno-Romanian plural cl'eili.^[3][5][1] The Romance cognates include Italian chiave, French clé, Occitan clau, Catalan clau, Spanish llave, Portuguese chave and Dalmatian kluf.^[3][6] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *kleh₂u- (“to close”), according to de Vaan.^[7]

“Keystone” follows French clef de voûte, and the musical “clef” follows Italian and French usage.^[2] For the names of parts of the plough, the mill and the wine press, Pușcariu and the DA suggest a remnant of clāvus (“nail”), whose plural fell together with that of the key.^[2][8] For the sense “gorge”, Ciorănescu compares Sardinian keia, which seems itself pre-Roman.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name, Chee, in a document of 1500.^[9][2] As a common noun the word is first found about 1650: the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glosses cleie as “key”, and a chronograph of the same years speaks of the keys of the church.^[8][4][2]

Semantic evolution

From the key itself the word passed to tools that turn or fasten: the key for winding a clock, the tuning key of a piano, the spanner or wrench.^[10][9] Figuratively it is what opens a mystery, the explanation or solution, as in cheia visurilor “dream book”.^[9][10] The architectural and musical senses came in on French and Italian models.^[2] In the plural chei names the narrow gorges of the Carpathians, such as the Bicaz Gorge, Cheile Bicazului.^[9][10]

Regional uses include a kind of closing embroidery in the Banat and, in Oltenia, the joint where the horizontal beams of a log house meet.^[9][11] In the mid-20th century the noun began to follow other nouns as an invariable attribute, “key, chief” (poziție-cheie “key position”), and by the 1990s it formed dozens of such compounds.^[12][13][4]

Timeline

• 1500 – the place name Chee, the first record.^[9][2]
• c. 1650 – cleie and the diminutive cleiță in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[2]
• c. 1650 – the keys of the church in a chronograph.^[4][8]
• 1839 – cheier “locksmith; keeper of the keys” and cheiaș “jailer”.^[2]
• 1871 – the diminutive cheiuță.^[2]
• 1901 – the diminutive cheișoară.^[2]
• 1958 – portchei “key ring”, after French porte-clefs.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. key: a metal tool that locks and unlocks a lock or padlock;^[1] la cheie “turnkey, ready for use” (of a building).^[10][1]
2. (figurative) The solution or explanation of something; a cipher key;^[1] roman cu cheie “roman à clef”.^[10][1]
3. A spanner, wrench: cheie franceză “adjustable spanner”; a key for winding a clock or tuning a stringed instrument.^[10][1]
4. (music) A clef: cheia sol “the treble clef”.^[10][1]
5. (in the plural) A gorge, a narrow valley between high, steep rock walls.^[10][1]
6. cheie de boltă “keystone”;^[13][1] (figurative) the cornerstone of something.^[10]

Adjective

1. (invariable, after a noun) crucial, chief: martor-cheie “key witness”.^[10][13][1]

Word family

• cheier
• cheieriță
• cheișoară
• cheiță
• cheiuță
• portchei
• răscheie

Related words

• cheotoare
• descheia
• încheia

Usage notes

A ține sub cheie means “to keep under lock and key”, and cheia și lacătul “the key and the padlock” means “everything, the beginning and the end”.^[10] A fi cheie de biserică “to be a church key” is said of someone without fault.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. cheie
3. ^ a b c d 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. cheie
4. ^ 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, 370
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 30
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1981
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. ^ 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. cheie
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cheie
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 175
11. ^ Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 19
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 400
13. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. cheie