flotă

Forms

flotă f (plural flote)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French flotte, as DEX, MDA2, the DA, CADE and Wiktionary give it.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DN adds Italian flotta as a second source, and Tiktin derives the word from the Italian noun alone; his first record, of 1694, has the old form floată.^[6][7]

The French word for a body of ships, first recorded around 1138, is from Old Norse floti (“raft”); it crossed with Old French flote (“multitude, crowd”), from Latin fluctus (“flow, wave”), perhaps through the Italian word.^[8] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Germanic *flutô (“float, raft, boat”) through a Norman or Frankish *flote.^[1] Graur instead takes the French noun from the verb flotter (“to float”) and places it in the family of Latin fluō (“to flow”), beside fluid and flux.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1694, in the form floată.^[7] Nicolae Costin's chronicle has the plural: „meșterșuguia să aptinză flotele, adecă galioanele cele de oaste de pe apă” “he contrived to set fire to the fleets, that is, the war galleons on the water”.^[5][4] MDA2 dates this record 1601, a year taken from the chronicle's title, which runs to 1601.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was a group of ships, mostly warships, sailing together with a common destination; by extension it became the navy of a state.^[4][5][10] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 still defines it as many warships gathered in one place.^[11] In the 20th century it came to cover a state's aircraft too, as French did from 1932.^[12][8] Technical senses from the textile and leather industries followed: the bath of dyes in which fabric is finished, and the tanning pit in which hides lie in strong liquors.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1694 – floată, the first record.^[7]
• early 18th century – flotele in Nicolae Costin's chronicle.^[5][4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1978 – the homograph flotă “felt-like cloth”, from French, in the third edition of DN.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. fleet: all the river, sea or air vessels of a state; the navy.^[2][3][1]
2. A large naval or air formation assigned to a region or a task under a single command.^[2][3]
3. (textiles) A solution or suspension of dyes or other chemicals used in finishing fabrics, such as bleaching and dyeing.^[2][3]
4. (textiles) The ratio between the weight of the material to be dyed and that of the bath.^[3]
5. (tanning) A tanning pit with concentrated liquors in which hides are left still for a long time after the pre-tanning pits.^[2][3]

Usage notes

A separate word flotă “a cloth like felt” comes from French flôtre;^[3][13] MDA2 and MDN record it.^[3][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 401
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 920
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. flotă
5. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. flotă
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. flotă
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. flotă
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. flotte
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. fluo
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 255
11. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. flotă
12. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. flotă
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. flotă