club

Forms

club n (plural cluburi)^[1] An older form clup, plural clupuri, reflects the German Klub as Austrians pronounced it, according to the DA: Zilot Românul writes of peoples „unite prin baluri, clupuri și prin nunți” “united by balls, clubs and weddings”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French club, which is from English club;^[4][5][6][3] DEX and MDA2 name both French and English as sources, and Tiktin allows a direct English loan as well as one through another language.^[4][5][6][3] The English word first meant a cudgel and comes from Old Norse klubba; its sense “society of people” is recorded in English from 1648.^[7] The DHLF traces this sense to an older “mass, cluster”, perhaps under the influence of the English verb “to club” “to gather together”, which DELR names as the probable source.^[7][4] French had the word first as a term for English societies, from 1698, and as a French word from 1782.^[8]

The sense “nightclub, place for dancing and drinking” was added later after night club.^[4] The DA takes the older Romanian form clup from German Klub in its Austrian pronunciation.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1810, and DELR to 1831, in the chronicle of Zilot Românul, who used the form clup.^[3][4] In these early texts the word means a social gathering of the well-to-do, named together with balls;^[2] Golescu and Pann use clupuri in the same way.^[2] Negulici's 1848 dictionary of neologisms defines it as a political or philanthropic assembly and marks it as English.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The DA defined a club as a closed society whose members met to talk, read the papers and play cards, billiards or chess, and by extension the rooms where they met.^[2] CADE in 1931 gave three senses: a gathering of people with a common aim, a political association, and a gaming house.^[10] Under communism the DLRM and DLRLC defined the club as a cultural and educational circle attached to a factory, an institution or a trade union, and set the bourgeois club of the capitalist countries apart from it.^[11][12] MDA2 still records this communist-era sense beside the general one.^[6]

Compounds and derivatives followed: clubist “club member” from 1837, aeroclub from 1905, radioclub from 1936 and cineclub from 1959.^[4] A club-bar is recorded in the press from 1962.^[13]

Timeline

• 1810 – the first record in Tiktin's dictionary.^[3]
• 1831 – clup in the chronicle of Zilot Românul.^[4][2]
• 1837 – clubist “club member”.^[4]
• 1848 – Negulici's dictionary of neologisms defines the word.^[9]
• 1905 – aeroclub.^[4]
• 1919 – clubman in Ion Vinea.^[4]
• 1936 – radioclub.^[4]
• 1959 – cineclub.^[4]
• 1962 – club-bar in the press.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A club or association that gives its members the means to pursue an activity in their free time, such as sport or culture.^[5][6]
2. The premises where such an association meets.^[5][6]
3. (historical) Under communism, a cultural and educational organization attached to an institution or a factory.^[6]
4. A nightclub, a place for dancing and drinking.^[4]

Word family

• aeroclub
• cineclub
• clubist
• clubman
• fotoclub
• radioclub

Usage notes

A separate regional club “thigh”, from Oaș, is borrowed from Ukrainian клуб (klub);^[4][6][2] CADE recorded it, and DELR dates it to 1931.^[4][6][2] MDN also lists a masculine club “golf club”, taken from English.^[14]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. club
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. club
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. club
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 198
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 440
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. club
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. club
11. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. club
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 472
13. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. club
14. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. club