frunză

Forms

frunză f (plural frunze)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin frondia (“foliage”), a neuter plural that became a feminine singular with a collective sense.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} Wiktionary describes the Late Latin word as a collective noun built on the neuter plural of Latin frondeus (“leafy”), perhaps after folia, and notes that it is found in the Vetus Latina and in a late gloss.^[1] The adjective is formed on frōns (“foliage”).^[7][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian frãndzã, Megleno-Romanian frunză and Istro-Romanian frunzę.^[2][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian fronza, Sardinian frundza and Portuguese fronça.^[2][6] Modern Greek φρουνζάτον (frounzáton, “arbour, pergola”) comes from the same source.^[2][6]

Densusianu, Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu took the verb înfrunzi “to come into leaf” from Vulgar Latin *infrondiō, while Ciorănescu lists it among the Romanian derivatives.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Psalm 1:3 of the Psaltirea Scheiană, of the 16th century.^[10] Candrea's glossary of the psalter records the form there.^[10][11] The sense was “leaf of a tree”.^[3] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 has the plural frunze for Slavonic “leaf”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Besides a single leaf the word often has a collective sense, “foliage”.^[10][3] In the old language it also meant a leaf of a book: an old text refers to “the second book, on three leaves”.^[10][2] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 also gives “ribbon, hair band”.^[13]

Many folk songs open with the formula frunză verde “green leaf”, followed by the name of a plant, as in Frunză verde de alună.^[10][4][14] A cânta din frunză is to play a tune on a leaf held between the lips.^[10][14] The word is part of many plant names, such as frunza-voinicului.^[4][5] In Maramureș it has meant layers of pastry.^[15]

Romanian has many derivatives: frunzar “leafy bower”, frunzări “to leaf through”, frunziș “foliage”, frunzos “leafy” and desfrunzi “to shed leaves”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – in Psalm 1:3 of the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10][11]
• 1649 – the plural frunze in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 8:11).^[16]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, as a tree leaf, a sheet of paper and a ribbon.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A leaf: the organ of a plant that serves for breathing, transpiration and photosynthesis, usually a green blade joined to the stem by a stalk; collectively, foliage.^[17][5][1]
2. Frunză-de-potcă: a herb with glossy green leaves, the nettle-leaved goosefoot (Chenopodium murale).^[17]
3. (in the phrase frunze de ferigă) A virus disease of tomatoes that narrows the leaflets until they look like fern leaves.^[17]
4. (obsolete) A leaf or sheet of paper.^[2][10]

Word family

• frunzar
• frunzărel
• frunzări
• frunzătură
• frunziș
• frunzos
• frunzișoară
• înfrunzi
• desfrunzi

Related words

• Aromanian frãndzã
• Latin frons

Usage notes

A tăia frunză la câini “to cut leaves for the dogs” means to idle, and ca frunza și ca iarba “like leaves and grass” means countless.^[17] A trăi ca frunza pe apă is to live at the mercy of chance.^[5][10]

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 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. frunză
3. ^ a b c 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. frunză
4. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 530
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 947
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3530
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. frondeus
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 462
9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 179
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. frunză
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 295
12. ^ 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. frunze
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 227
14. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 261
15. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. frunză
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 8:11
17. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 417