ciclu

Forms

ciclu n (plural cicluri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French cycle and New Latin cyclus, a neologism with several sources, as DELR, DEX and Ciorănescu give it;^[2][3][4] Tiktin adds Greek and Wiktionary names only the French word.^[5][1] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos, “circle, wheel”).^[2][6][7]

Older variants came from other languages: chiclu from Modern Greek κύκλος (kýklos), recorded in the 18th century, and țiclu from German Zyklus, or the Latin word pronounced the German way.^[2][4][8] The DA treats the first of these as a doublet.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1703, in the old variant chiclu.^[2][5] Before 1773 Iliodor used chiclu for “circle”.^[8][10] In the 19th century ciclu was chiefly an astronomical term: Pontbriant (1862) glosses it with French cycle,^[11] and Costinescu (1870) gives the solar cycle of 28 years, which he also calls by the old word crug.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From astronomy, where a cycle is the period after which the same phenomena recur in the same order (the solar cycle of 28 years, the lunar or Metonic cycle of 19), the word spread to any series of events that ends where it began.^[13][9][14] The DA (1913–1949) already records it for a series of lectures, a group of epic poems on one subject and the spiral of leaves on a stem.^[9] Chemistry uses it for a closed chain of atoms in a molecule, and physics once counted frequency in cicli pe secundă, now hertz.^[3][2] The phrase ciclu menstrual gives the colloquial sense “period”.^[3][1]

Timeline

• 1703 – the first record, as chiclu.^[2][5]
• before 1773 – chiclu “circle” in Iliodor.^[8]
• 1840 – ciclic “cyclic”, from French cyclique.^[2]
• 1848 – epiciclu “epicycle”.^[2]
• 1862 – ciclu “cycle” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[11]
• 1895 – ciclul lunar “the lunar cycle” in Culianu's cosmography.^[13][9]
• 1930 – aciclic “acyclic”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cycle: a succession of phenomena, states or operations in a repeatable process, from a given situation back to the same or a similar one: ciclu solar “solar cycle”, ciclu de conferințe “series of lectures”.^[3][13]
2. A group of literary or musical works with a common theme.^[3][9]
3. (in ciclu menstrual, and colloquially alone) menstruation.^[3][1]
4. (chemistry) A closed chain of atoms in a molecule.^[3][15]
5. (physics) The set of successive values of a periodic quantity during one period; formerly, in cicli pe secundă, a hertz.^[3][2]

Word family

• aciclic
• ciclan
• ciclic
• ciclicitate
• ciclizare
• epicicloidă
• epiciclu
• hemiciclu
• heterociclic

Related words

• chiclu
• crug
• Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ciclu
3. ^ 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. 183
4. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
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. ciclu
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 378
9. ^ 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. ciclu
10. ^ 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. chiclu
11. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 187
13. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 393
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 276
15. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România