craniu

Forms

craniu n (plural cranii)^[1] Eminescu has an unusual plural crane: „în dulapuri ... crane de oameni” “human skulls in cupboards”.^[2][3] Older variants are cran (plural crane) and the feminine crană, recorded by Costinescu.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing, borrowed from Medieval Latin crānium (“skull”), which DELR calls a learned Latin word;^[4][5][1] DELR adds that Italian cranio may also have played a part, and Tiktin names both the Latin and the Italian word.^[4][5][1] The Latin word comes from Ancient Greek κρανίον (kraníon, “upper part of the head, skull”).^[4][1]

DEX and DN give the Latin word and compare French crâne;^[6][7][8][9] MDN says the Latin and Greek words were taken after the French model;^[6][7][8][9] MDA2 gives French alone.^[6][7][8][9] DELR derives only the old variants (see Forms) from the French word.^[4] The French word was itself borrowed from Medieval Latin in the 14th century.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1825, in a text by Vârnav, with the anatomical sense “the bones of the head that enclose the brain”;^[4][5] Tiktin also dates the word to 1825.^[4][5] MDA2 dates it from N. A. Krețulescu's manual of descriptive anatomy (Bucharest, 1843), which speaks of „oasele cele largi ale craniului” “the broad bones of the skull”.^[9][2]

Semantic evolution

The word came in through anatomy and medicine, and its scientific family followed in the 19th century, most of it from French: craniologie (first as cranologie, 1839), cranian (1843), and craniolog, craniologic and craniometrie in Laurian and Massim's dictionary of 1871.^[4] Besides the bony case of the brain it names the bare skull of a dead person, the sense of the folk word hârcă.^[6][9] The DA explained craniologie as the study of the skull's shape in its supposed link with a person's inclinations and gifts, a study the DA compares with phrenology.^[2]

Timeline

• 1825 – first record, in a text by Vârnav.^[4][5]
• 1839 – cranologie, later craniologie, in Negruzzi.^[4]
• 1843 – Krețulescu's manual of descriptive anatomy; the adjective cranian in the same author.^[9][4]
• 1871 – craniolog, craniologic and craniometrie in Laurian and Massim.^[4]
• 1884 – cranial.^[4]
• 1903 – craniometru “instrument for measuring the skull”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The skull: the bones of the head that enclose the brain in vertebrates; popularly țeastă.^[6][9]
2. The bare head of a dead person, a hârcă.^[6][3]

Word family

• acraniat
• cranial
• cranian
• craniat
• craniolog
• craniologic
• craniologie
• craniometrie
• craniometru
• cranioscopie
• craniotomie
• endocranian

Related words

• Latin cranium
• French crâne

Usage notes

The folk words for the skull are țeastă, căpățână, hârcă, scăfârlie and tigvă.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. craniu
3. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 568
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. craniu
5. ^ 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. craniu
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 245
7. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. craniu
8. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. craniu
9. ^ 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, 537
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert