destrăma

Forms

destrăma (third-person singular present destramă, past participle destrămat) 1st conjugation^[1] MDA2 records the popular variant distrăma and regional destrema and dăstrăma; a dialect atlas has „Să dăstramă pânza” “the cloth is fraying”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian des- + tramă (“weft”).^[4][2][3] Ciorănescu also cites the derivation from Vulgar Latin *distramāre, formed on trāma (“warp, weft”), held by P. Papahagi, Pascu and Tiktin, but thinks the Romanian prefix more likely: an inherited form of the noun must have existed in old Romanian, while the word now in use is a neologism.^[5][1] MDA2 records that older word, a weaving term of Banat and Transylvania from Latin, from about 1650, beside the later loan from French trame.^[6] NODEX alone derives the verb from the French word.^[7] The Latin noun is perhaps from trahō (“to draw”).^[8]

The verb has cognates south of the Danube: Aromanian distrãmedz and Megleno-Romanian distram.^[5][9] Aromanian also keeps the noun tramã (“weft”), from Latin.^[10] Sardinian istramare (“to unravel”) is a parallel formation.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană of about 1573–1578.^[2] The Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582) uses it of a garment's neck opening, which is to be hemmed „cum să nu se destrame” “so that it does not fray”.^[3] Tiktin's first record is Dosoftei's verse psalter of 1673: „Și prin țări departe să-i rășchire, Să-i destrame ca pe nește hire” “and scatter them through far lands, unravel them like threads”.^[13]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is pulling the threads out of a fabric, and of cloth, fraying.^[13][3] From the 17th century it was used figuratively of tearing apart and of things falling to pieces: Cantemir wrote that the garment of deceit soon grows old and, fraying on every side, lays bare its shame.^[13][3]

Modern usage extends it to clouds, mist or smoke that thin out and scatter, and to anything that loses its cohesion and breaks up.^[2][4] Technical senses belong to textile work, opening raw fibre before carding, and to paper making, pulping cellulose and waste paper.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – first record, in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1581–1582 – „să nu se destrame” “so that it does not fray” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3]
• 1673 – destrame in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[13]
• 1688 – the participle destrămat in the Bucharest Bible (Deuteronomy 32:5).^[14]
• 1705 – destrămându-să “fraying” in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) Of cloth, to fray, to come apart as the threads loosen and break with wear;^[4][2] (transitive) to unravel a fabric.^[4][2]
2. (reflexive, figurative) Of clouds, mist or smoke, to thin out and disperse: Ceața s-a destrămat spre prânz.^[4][2]
3. (transitive) To undo a ball of yarn or a piece of knitting; in textile work, to open raw fibre to clean it before carding.^[4]
4. (transitive) In paper making, to break cellulose or waste paper down into pulp.^[4]
5. (often figurative) To break up, fall apart, disintegrate; by extension, to weaken.^[4]

Word family

• destrămătură
• destrămător

Related words

• tramă

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 676
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. destrăma
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 301
5. ^ 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), p. s.v. destrăma
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1252
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. destrăma
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 216
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1043
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8847
12. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 325
13. ^ 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. destrăma
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deut 32:5