dublu

Forms

dublu m or n (feminine singular dublă, masculine plural dubli, feminine/neuter plural duble)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French double (“double”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French word continues Latin duplus (“double”), a compound, possibly a very old one, of the root of duo (“two”) and an element related to plicō (“to fold”).^[2] DELR compares Ancient Greek διπλόος (diplóos).^[2] Its Romance cognates include Italian doppio, Catalan doble and Spanish doble.^[6]

The first form, duplu, is a learned borrowing of the Latin word in DELR's view.^[2] DER explains it by a crossing with a Modern Greek form.^[3] South of the Danube there is Aromanian duplu.^[7] The rare old variant doplu comes from the Italian word, and duflu, recorded in Hunedoara, from Hungarian dupla.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the form duplu in Bobb's dictionary of 1822.^[2] The form dublu follows in Vârnav's text of 1825, the year Tiktin gives too.^[2][5] The early sense is “twofold, twice as large”: Heliade writes of a „senzațiune duplă” “a double sensation”.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first meant “twice as much” and “made of two parts”; 19th-century grammars list duplu beside simplu and triplu among the multiplicative numerals.^[8] The form with -b-, after French, replaced duplu.^[5][2]

In the 20th century sport and games gave it new uses as a noun: dublu for a tennis match of two against two, dublă for a double throw at dice and for the fault of touching the ball twice.^[2][4] In the theatre dublu is the device of bringing two identical characters on stage.^[4] Hunters use dublă for the great snipe, after French bécassine double.^[2]

The family is mostly French: dubla in 1836, dublet in 1840, dubleu in 1862, dedubla in 1890 and dublaj in 1933.^[2]

Timeline

• 1822 – duplu in Bobb's dictionary, the first record.^[2]
• 1825 – dublu in Vârnav.^[2][5]
• 1836 – the verb dubla in Asachi.^[2]
• 1840 – dublet in Poenaru, Aaron and Hill's dictionary.^[2]
• 1862 – dubleu, in the form dupleu, in Pontbriant.^[2]
• 1912 – dublă, the grain measure of two decalitres.^[2]
• 1933 – dublaj “dubbing”.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. double, twice as large or containing twice as much as a given amount: cu dublu sens “with a double meaning”.^[4][1]
2. Made up of two equal, identical or similar parts; taking place between two parts or in two places: ușă dublă “double door”.^[4][9]

Noun

1. (masculine) A doubles match in tennis or table tennis: dublu mixt “mixed doubles”.^[4][2]
2. (feminine) In volleyball, handball and tennis, a double hit; at dice, a throw with the same number on both dice.^[4]
3. (neuter) Twice the amount; a person or thing that doubles another; in comedy, the device of two identical characters.^[2][4]

Word family

• dedubla
• dubla
• dublaj
• dublă
• dublet
• dubleu
• dublor
• dublură

Related words

• duplicat
• duplicitate
• Latin duplus

Usage notes

A vedea dublu is “to see double”, also of someone who has drunk too much.^[4] Compounds name units of measure: dublu-decalitru (20 litres), dublu-decimetru (a 20 cm ruler).^[4]

DEX also has a neuter noun dublu (dublu¹), a variant of dublă “a grain measure of 20 litres; a double loaf”, which was shortened from dublu-decalitru.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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. dublu
3. ^ 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. dublu
4. ^ 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. 334
5. ^ 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. dublu
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2802
7. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 78
8. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dublu
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 765