fântână

Forms

fântână f (plural fântâni)^[1] A rare plural is fântâne.^[2][3] A regional variant is fontână.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin fontāna (“spring, fountain”), the feminine of fontānus (“of a spring”) used as a noun, from fōns (“spring”).^{[4][3][2][1][5]} Wiktionary also allows a shortening of the phrase fontāna aqua.^[1] Pușcariu (no. 615), Candrea–Densusianu (no. 592) and the REW list it among the inherited words.^[4][6] Wiktionary explains the vowels by assimilation from an earlier ⟨*funtână⟩.^[1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian fãntãnã, with Fărșerot funtãnã, Megleno-Romanian făntǫnă and Istro-Romanian făntărę.^[4][7][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian fontana, Sardinian funtana, Occitan fontana, French fontaine and Dalmatian funtuona.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has fîntînă at Psalm 35:10 and plural forms at 73:16 and 77:49.^[10] MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, and it gives “spring” as the oldest sense, now dated.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the spring the word passed to the dug well, its main sense today;^[3][2][11] Scriban still marked the well sense as Moldavian and Transylvanian.^[3][2][11] A Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 already uses it for the Slavonic word for “well”.^[12] The built structure that houses a piped spring, in a street or a park, is a further sense.^[2] The figurative “sources” of history or learning followed Romance usage.^[11][13]

The old sense “spring” lives on in the regions, and in Muntenia the word names a shallow pit that catches a spring.^[2][14] Another regional sense is the chimney flue of a peasant house.^[15][13]

Timeline

• 1570 – fîntînă in Coresi's Psalter.^[10]
• c. 1573-1578 – MDA2's first record, the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]
• 1588 – the first record in a document, according to DÉRom.^[9]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon, for the Slavonic word for “well”.^[12]
• 1688 – fântână 18 times in the Bucharest Bible, as in Genesis 16:14.^[16]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses Faentaena with Latin fons and puteus.^[17]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda: fontănă, “Brunnen”.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A well: a shaft dug down to a layer of water, with lined walls and a curb around it, the usual water supply of a village.^[2][3][1]
2. A fountain: a built structure, usually of stone, that houses a piped water source, used to draw water or as an ornament.^[2]
3. (regional, archaic) A spring.^[2][15]
4. (regional) The chimney flue of a peasant house.^[15][13]

Word family

• fântânar

Related words

• puț
• izvor
• Aromanian fãntãnã
• Latin fōns

Usage notes

A căra apă la fântână “to carry water to the well” means to labour in vain.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 385
3. ^ 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, 888
4. ^ a b c d 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. fîntînă
5. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3426
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 462
8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 159
9. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
10. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 35:10
11. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 511
12. ^ a b 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. fîntînă
13. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 243
14. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”
15. ^ a b c Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. fântână
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 16:14
17. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 358
18. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 223