clasă

Forms

clasă f (plural clase)^[1] Old variants are the neuter clas (plural clasuri), clase, clasis, the Transylvanian clasiș and glas, glasă.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French classe, with German Klasse as a second model, both from Latin classis (“division of citizens; levy; fleet”).^[2][4][1] Ciorănescu gives only the French word.^[5] Tiktin and the DA add Russian among the routes.^[3][6]

The older variants came by other paths, as DELR sets out after N. A. Ursu (1965): the neuter clas of Wallachia and Moldavia is from Modern Greek κλάσις (klásis) or the learned Latin word of Transylvania and the Banat, perhaps also from French; clasiș is from Hungarian klasszis; clasis is from learned Latin or Greek.^[2] Scriban takes the Moldavian neuter from Russian.^[7]

In Latin the oldest sense was probably “call-out, levy”: de Vaan cautiously links it with calō (“to call”), a derivation he calls a paper reconstruction.^[8] The sense of a social layer arose in 18th-century England (“lower classes”) and spread from there.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the neuter clas in the Urbarium of 1781.^[2] MDA2 dates the feminine form to a document of before 1785 in the Uricariul, and Tiktin has it from 1787.^[4][3] The early records concern categories of people and tax-payers.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the 19th century the word named the classes of citizens by social standing: Bălcescu notes that the boyars did not form a noble class as in Europe, and a Moldavian document of 1848 speaks of men “of all classes”.^[6] It also named the bands of tax-payers by income, and the young men of one year called up for military service.^[6][7]

The school senses came next: a division of pupils by year, the room where they meet, and, as a Gallicism, the lesson itself (a avea clasă “to have a lesson”).^[6][7][10] Natural history gave the sense of a division above the order, and transport the classes of carriages and cabins.^[11][10] Colloquial speech has a da clasă “to outclass someone”.^[12]

The family grew from French models: clasa “to class” (1840), clasifica (about 1832), declasa (1868) and clasament “ranking” (1931).^[2]

Timeline

• 1781 – the neuter clas in the Urbarium, the first record.^[2]
• before 1785 – clasă in a document of the Uricariul.^[4]
• 1787 – clasificație “classification”.^[2]
• about 1832 – clasifica and clasificare, in Iordache Golescu.^[2]
• 1840 – the verb clasa.^[2]
• 1868 – declasa in Kogălniceanu.^[2]
• 1931 – clasament and clasor.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A group of objects, beings or phenomena that share some properties; a category.^[10][4]
2. A social class: a body of people grouped by economic, historical and sociological criteria;^[10][4] de clasă “relating to a class or to class relations”.^[10][4]
3. (biology) Each of the main divisions of the animal or plant kingdom, below the phylum and above the order.^[10]
4. A group of pupils who study together for a school year under the same syllabus; the classroom where they meet;^[10][4] (Gallicism) a lesson: Copiii au intrat în clasă.^[10][4]
5. (mathematics) Each group of three digits in a number with several digits.^[10]
6. A category of carriages, cabins or seats by comfort and fare: un bilet de clasa a doua “a second-class ticket”.^[10][3]
7. A rank or grade by value or merit.^[11][2]

Word family

• clasa
• clasabil
• clasament
• clasifica
• clasificare
• clasificator
• clasificație
• clasor
• declasa
• reclasa
• reclasifica

Related words

• clasic
• Latin classis

Usage notes

De-a clasele (also de-a glasele) is a regional children's game in which a ball is thrown against a wall and caught from farther and farther away.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. clasă
3. ^ 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. clasă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 429
5. ^ 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. clasă
6. ^ 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. clasă
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 300
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 496
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 193
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. clasă
12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. clasă