etaj

Forms

etaj n (plural etaje)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French étage, as DELR, DEX 2009, MDA2, Tiktin and Marcu agree.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The French word continues Old French estage (“dwelling; situation, condition; storey”), derived from ester (“to stand, dwell, be situated”), which goes back to Latin stāre (“to stand”).^[2][7] Wiktionary gives also a possible Vulgar Latin *stāticum.^[1] Scriban compared Italian staggio, from stare, and Romanian stagiu.^[8] An old variant was etagiu.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1785, in M. Cantacuzino's translation of a travel compendium by the abbé Delaporte, with the sense “storey of a building”.^[2][4][5]

Semantic evolution

From the storey of a house the word passed to anything built in levels: a compartment of a cupboard, a horizontal layer of a deposit, a geological stage, and a belt of vegetation defined by altitude.^[2] Technical senses followed in the 20th century: the stage of a thermal machine and of an electric amplifier.^[3][9] A rare figurative use means social rank.^[2][4]

The derivatives were taken from French as well: etajeră “shelf, bookcase” 1846, etajat 1879, etaja 1905.^[2]

Timeline

• 1785 – etaj “storey” in M. Cantacuzino's translation of Delaporte, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1846 – etajeră “shelf, bookcase”.^[2]
• 1879 – etajat “in storeys”, in Românul.^[2]
• 1905 – etaja “to arrange in storeys”.^[2]
• 1931 – bietajat “two-storeyed”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A storey, floor: each of the levels of a building above the ground floor, with the rooms on one horizontal plane; cat, nivel.^[3][4]
2. A stage of a thermal machine, in which the speed or pressure of the fluid changes.^[3]
3. A stage of an electric amplifier.^[3]
4. (geology) A set of distinct strata corresponding to the smallest division of geological time.^[3]
5. (botany) etaj de vegetație: a belt of vegetation determined by altitude.^[3][2]
6. (figurative, rare) Social rank.^[2][4]

Word family

• etaja
• etajat
• etajeră
• multietajat
• subetaj
• supraetaja

Usage notes

Scriban noted in 1939 that Romanians usually count the ground floor in casă cu două etaje, which for a Frenchman would be a house with one storey above the ground floor.^[8] The plural is etaje, rarely etajuri.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. etaj
3. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 362
4. ^ 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, 837
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. etaj
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. etaj
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. étage
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 476
9. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. etaj