fașă

Forms

fașă f (plural feșe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fascia (“band, bandage, swathe”), related to fascis (“bundle”).^[2][3][4][1] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian fashe, Megleno-Romanian fașă and Istro-Romanian foșa.^[2][5][6] Its Romance cognates include Italian fascia, Occitan faissa, French faisse, Spanish faja and Portuguese faixa.^[2][7] Ciorănescu also compares Albanian fashë.^[2]

Ciorănescu derives fâșie “strip” from it, crossed with an expressive formation, and sfâșia “to tear to pieces”.^[2] In the 19th century fășioară was used artificially for “fascicle, booklet”; the REW takes this form straight from fasciola.^[2][8] According to Ciorănescu, who follows Capidan, Bulgarian borrowed the word from Romanian in the sense “lace, string”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1632, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[9] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss it with Slavonic повои “swaddling bands” from 1673.^[10] MDA2 dates it to the Bucharest Bible of 1688, which also has the plurals făși and fășuri.^[3][9]

Semantic evolution

The word named the long narrow band wound round a baby over its napkins;^[9] Tiktin distinguishes it from pelincă “nappy” and scutec, the square cloth the baby lies in.^[9] From the swaddling band came the figurative sense “infancy”, recorded in the old language, and the phrase din fașă “from the cradle; from the very beginning”.^[3][4] Varlaam's Cazania already has „încă din fașe” “from infancy”.^[9] În fașă “in its infancy, at the start” is said of things not yet grown: CADE quotes Alecsandri on stifling a plot in its infancy.^[11]

In the modern language the word also names the gauze bandage used to dress wounds.^[4][12] Regional senses include the white cloth in which a child is wrapped after baptism, a compress, and the skin of a hazelnut.^[3] In Muscel it also meant a strip of land.^[13]

Timeline

• 1632 – first record, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[9]
• 1673 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing повои.^[10]
• 1688 – fașă with the plurals făși and fășuri in the Bucharest Bible.^[3][9]
• 20th century – the medical sense “gauze bandage”.^[12][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long narrow band of cloth wound tightly round a baby over its napkins; swaddling band.^[4][3][1]
2. A long narrow strip of gauze used to dress wounds; a bandage.^[4][14][1]
3. (figurative, dated) infancy.^[3][15]
4. (heraldry) fess.^[1]

Word family

• fâșie
• sfâșia
• înfășa
• înfășura

Related words

• fâșioară
• Aromanian fashe
• Latin fascia

Usage notes

The usual plural is feșe, with feși beside it;^[4][3] făși and fășuri are older.^[4][3] Set phrases: din fașă “since early childhood; from the start” and abia ieșit din fașă “barely out of swaddling clothes, very young”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. fașă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 879
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. 382
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 449
6. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 155
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3208
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3212
9. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fașă
10. ^ 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. fașă
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. fașă
12. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. fașă
13. ^ Rădulescu-Codin, C. (1901), O seamă de cuvinte din Muscel, Câmpulung, p. 31
14. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. fașă
15. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 494