chelner

Forms

chelner m (plural chelneri, feminine equivalent chelneriță)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from German Kellner (“waiter”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Borcia listed it among the German words of Transylvanian Romanian.^[6]

The German word goes back through Middle High German kelnære to Old High German kellenāri, borrowed from Medieval Latin cellenārius (“cellarer, keeper of the stores”), a dissimilated form of cellerārius.^[7][8][9] DELR traces it further to Late Latin cellārium (“storeroom, cellar”) and Latin cella (“small room, storeroom”).^[2] The sense “waiter in an inn” arose in German in the 18th century, replacing older words borrowed from French.^[9][8] Scriban related it to celar, from the same Latin family.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to 1860, when oberchelner “head waiter” is also recorded.^[2] Tiktin's first record is Costinescu's dictionary of 1870, which glosses it as a servant at an inn or a billiard room, French garçon.^[5][11]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed that of the German word: a man who serves guests in a café, restaurant or hotel.^[12][4] The feminine chelneriță followed in 1890.^[2] In 1955 the DLRLC described the word as going out of use, in favour of ospătar, but DEX 2009 has it without a label.^[13][4]

Timeline

• 1860 – first record, with oberchelner “head waiter”.^[2]
• 1870 – chelnerŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[5][11]
• 1890 – the feminine chelneriță.^[2]
• 1955 – labelled as going out of use in the DLRLC.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A waiter: a man who serves the customers in a restaurant, café or bar; ospătar.^[4][1]

Word family

• chelneriță
• oberchelner

Related words

• celar
• ospătar
• German Kellner

Usage notes

An older variant is chelnăr.^[4][12] The form chelner also occurs as an unrelated regional word: in Muntenia a tool for marking the place on metal where a hole is to be punched, in Moldova a part of a cart.^[14][15]

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. chelner
3. ^ 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. chelner
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 175
5. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. chelner
6. ^ Borcia, Ioan (1903–1904), Deutsche Sprachelemente im Rumänischen, Leipzig (in Weigand, Zehnter Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig), p. 44
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
8. ^ a b Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 486
9. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 264
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 182
12. ^ a b 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. chelner
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 402
14. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 146
15. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 55