film

Forms

film n (plural filme)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French film, the source DEX, MDA2, NODEX, MDN, DILF and the DLRM give.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Scriban takes it straight from English, and Wiktionary allows German Film beside French.^[8][1]

The French word, like the German one, comes from English film (“membrane, thin skin”), as CADE and the DLRM note.^{[9][7][10][11]} In English it meant “a thin sheet” from the 16th century, was used in photography from 1845 for the layer of gelatine on a plate, and named the photographic film from about 1880;^[10] French took this sense about 1889, applied it to the cinema reel in 1896 and, by metonymy, to the work shown.^[10] The English word goes back to Old English filmen (“membrane”);^[10][12] Pfeifer relates it to German Fell (“hide, fur”).^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is a medical book by C. I. Parhon of 1948, but the word is older: Șăineanu's dictionary (1929 edition) has it for the thin celluloid sheet used in photography and the cinema and for a cinema “scenario”, and CADE (1931) for the plate film of a camera and the cinema strip.^[3][13][9]

Semantic evolution

The word named first the celluloid film of photography and the cinema, and by extension the picture projected on the screen.^[9][13] The DLRM of 1958 adds the art of film, and the modern dictionaries also a thin layer of liquid, solid or gas on a surface, the sense of English and French “film”.^[7][2][5] Scriban gives the plural filmuri; the dictionaries from CADE on have filme.^[8][9][2]

From the 1960s the press used it figuratively for the step-by-step account of an event, a race or an accident.^[14][5] The familiar phrase a i se rupe filmul “one's film snaps”, that is “to black out, to lose one's memory of what happened”, is recorded in the press from 2001.^[14][3] Marcu and Maneca also list filmo- as a combining form.^[15]

Timeline

• 1929 – in Șăineanu's dictionary, for photographic and cinema film.^[13]
• 1931 – in CADE, with the plural filme.^[9]
• 1939 – Scriban, with the plural filmuri.^[8]
• 1948 – MDA2's first record, in a medical book by C. I. Parhon.^[3]
• 1958 – the DLRM gives the sense “the art of film”.^[7]
• 1961 – the figurative sense “account of how something happened” in the press.^[14]
• 2001 – a i se rupe filmul “to black out” in the press.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. Photographic film: a thin, flexible strip of celluloid coated with a light-sensitive layer, used in photography and radiography; in the cinema, the long strip with the images and sound projected on a screen.^[2][3]
2. The art of the cinema; a motion picture, a movie.^[2][3]
3. A thin layer of a liquid, solid or gaseous material spread over a surface.^[2][5]
4. (figurative) The unfolding of events; an account of how something happened.^[2][14]

Word family

• filma

Related words

• French film

Usage notes

In familiar speech a i se rupe filmul means “to black out, to stop knowing what is happening”.^[3][14]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 394
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 905
4. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
5. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
7. ^ a b c d Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. film
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 507
9. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
10. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
12. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
13. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 251
14. ^ a b c d e f Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. film
15. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România