frontieră

Forms

frontieră f (plural frontiere)^[1] A more Romanian-looking form fruntărie (MDA2 fruntarie, obsolete) occurs in Hasdeu and Sturdza.^[2][3] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written фронтиерэ.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French frontière, one of the French neologisms of the 19th century.^{[3][4][2][5][1]} The French word is a derivative of front with the suffix -ière, recorded from 1213; in Old French it meant the front line of an army, then from 1292 a stronghold facing the enemy, and since about 1360 the line between two states.^[6][1] Scriban compares Italian frontiera and the inherited frunte “forehead”.^[7] Its Romance cognates include Spanish frontera and Portuguese fronteira.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains frontieră as the boundaries of a state, its confines.^[8] MDA2 and the DA quote it first from Titu Maiorescu's parliamentary speeches, which MDA2 dates from 1866: frontierele noastre “our frontiers”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The DA still labelled it a Gallicism for graniță “border”.^[2] Besides the line that bounds a state's territory, it came to mean any limit between two different things and, in the plural, the bounds of a field of activity.^[3][9] In mathematics it names the set of elements that bounds a domain.^[5][3] The phrase fără frontiere “without frontiers, universal”, from French sans frontières, spread in the press of the 1990s.^[10]

Timeline

• 1848 – frontieră in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[8]
• 1866 – frontierele noastre in Maiorescu's parliamentary speeches.^[3][2]
• 1886 – Barcianu's dictionary renders it German Grenze.^[11]
• 1990s – fără frontiere “without frontiers” in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. border, frontier: the natural or agreed line that separates the territory of a state from other states or from waters outside it; compare graniță, hotar.^[4][3]
2. (figurative) A limit between two different things.^[3][9]
3. (figurative, in the plural) The bounds of a field of action or domain.^[3]
4. (mathematics) The set of elements that bounds a domain.^[5][3]

Related words

• frunte
• front

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. frontieră
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, 946
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 416
5. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. frontieră
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 529
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. frontieră
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
11. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic