frântură

Forms

frântură f (plural frânturi)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] One view takes it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *franctura, a by-form of Latin frāctūra (“a breaking, fracture”), itself formed on frangō (“to break”).^[4][2][3][1] Candrea and Densusianu, the REW and the DA derive it from the Latin noun remade after the Romanian verb frânge and its participle.^[5][6][7] Wiktionary compares Old French frainture and Old Italian frantura.^[1][5]

The other view takes it as formed from Romanian frânt + -ură, from the participle with the suffix, like săritură and căutătură.^[8][9] DEX and MDA2 give both explanations.^[2][3] Gabinschi also allows either.^[10]

The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian frãmturã.^[11][12] The neologism fractură is its learned doublet.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the plural frîmturile in Psalm 146:3 of the Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558), repeated by Coresi in 1570 and 1577 and by the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[13] There it means “wounds, breaks” of the broken-hearted;^[9][3] Tiktin and MDA2 cite the Scheiană and Coresi's 1577 psalter.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the act of breaking, the result and a broken piece: Dosoftei pairs rane și frânturi “wounds and fractures” and speaks of two frânturi “pieces” of bread.^[9][6] In the old language it also meant a ravine;^[9][6] Miron Costin tells of Prince Vasile sending his wife away through the ravines of the forests.^[9][6] Popular medicine used it for a fracture, an infirmity and gonorrhoea; the mathematical sense “fraction” is old, and a Banat sense is “field left unsown”.^[3][14][8]

Its senses often match the learned words of the same Latin family, fractură, fracțiune and fragment.^[6] The phrase frântură de limbă “tongue-twister” was recorded by Alecsandri, and Tiktin compares the German ones.^[9][2]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – frîmturile in the Psaltirea Voronețeană (Psalm 146:3).^[13]
• 1577 – in Coresi's psalter, MDA2's first record.^[3][13]
• 1688 – frânturi in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1801 – frantura “fracture, break” in Klein's dictionary.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of breaking; a piece broken off or left over from a whole: A găsit pe masă o frântură de pâine uscată.^[2][3][1]
2. A portion of a whole; a fragment: o frântură de cântec.^[2][17]
3. (popular) A fracture of a bone.^[2][3]
4. (rare) A crack or hole in something broken.^[2][3]

Related words

• frânge
• frânt
• fractură
• Aromanian frãmturã

Usage notes

Frântură de limbă is garbled speech, and also a tongue-twister, a phrase of words hard to say.^[2][3]

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 413
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 941
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. frîntură
6. ^ a b c d e f 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. frântúră
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3468
8. ^ a b 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. frînge
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. frântúră
10. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 106
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 462
12. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 88
13. ^ a b c 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 146:3
14. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. frîntură
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Preoția 6:21
16. ^ 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. 362
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. frântură