drum

Forms

drum n (plural drumuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic дроумъ (drumŭ), from Byzantine Greek δρόμος (drómos, “road, avenue, post road”), from Ancient Greek δρόμος (drómos, “running, race, course”).^[2][3][4][5] The Greek noun belongs with δραμεῖν (drameîn, “to run”), from Proto-Indo-European *drem- (“to run”).^[2][1] The Slavic route was the general view (Miklosich, Tiktin, Pușcariu) and is DELR's; compare Bulgarian друм (drum), Serbo-Croatian drum and Albanian dhrom.^[6][2][7]

Others, among them Murnu, Densusianu, Diculescu, Scriban and Rosetti, took the word directly from Greek, and DER finds the Slavic step possible but not needed.^[2][6][8] Wiktionary gives the Greek source alone.^[1] DELR objects that the change of /o/ to /u/ is typical of old loans into Slavic and does not happen in Romanian before /m/ (compare pom, om).^[2] Diculescu explained the /u/ by an Ionic form δροῦμος (droûmos), but such a form is not attested.^[2][6]

The word is also Megleno-Romanian drum, which Capidan derives from Bulgarian.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name of 1446.^[2][11] In Romanian texts it appears in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553.^[2] Coresi's Gospel has „Duceți-vă amu în ieșitul drumurelor” “go now into the highways”, with the sense “road”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the road or way; the Gospel's drum may also mean a mere path.^[5] From the road came “journey, trip” and “course, trajectory”.^[3][6] Many set phrases use it: drumul mare “the highway”, hoț de drumul mare “highwayman”, drum de fier “railway” and drum bun! “have a good trip!”.^[3][11] A da drumul means “to let go, release”.^[8] Regionally the word also names a part of the water-mill and, with the article, some folk dances.^[2]

Romanian derivatives include drumuleț (1785), drumeag “path” (1873) and drumeție “hike” (1920); îndruma “to guide” is first recorded as îndrumare in Corbea's dictionary (1691–1697).^[2] The Spanish Romani drum comes from Romanian, beside drom directly from Greek.^[6]

Timeline

• 1446 – a place name, the first record.^[2][11]
• 1551–1553 – in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel, the first Romanian text.^[2]
• 1645 – in the Romanian Herodotus, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1660 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St.^[12]
• 1691–1697 – îndrumare in Corbea's dictionary.^[2]
• 1785 – the diminutive drumuleț.^[2]
• 1920 – drumeție “hike”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A road, way, track: drumul mare “the highway”;^[3][4][1] drum de fier “railway”;^[3][4][1] peste drum “across the road, opposite”.^[3][4][1]
2. A journey, trip: drum bun! “have a good trip!”;^[3] ultimul drum “the last journey”, a funeral.^[3]
3. A trajectory, course.^[3]

Word family

• drumar
• drumaș
• drumeag
• drumeț
• drumeție
• drumuleț
• îndruma
• îndrumător
• autodrum

Related words

• Ancient Greek δρόμος (drómos)

Usage notes

The plural is drumuri.^[3] A-și vedea de drum means “to go on one's way” and also “to mind one's own business”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. drum
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 333
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 763
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. drum
6. ^ a b c d e 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. drum
7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 433
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 449
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 118
10. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 239
11. ^ 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. drum
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. drum