fum

Forms

fum n (plural fumuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūmus (“smoke”).^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} The Latin word goes back through Proto-Italic to Proto-Indo-European *dʰuh₂mós (“smoke”), with cognates such as Sanskrit धूम (dhūmá) and Old Church Slavonic дꙑмъ (dymŭ).^[7][1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian fum and Megleno-Romanian fum.^[2][8][9][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian fumo, Occitan fum, Catalan fum, Spanish humo and Portuguese fumo, while French uses the derivative fumée.^[2][6] The verb fuma probably continues fūmō (“to smoke”), and Ciorănescu lists Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian forms of it.^[2][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1450.^[11] In Romanian texts the word is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[12] The Psaltirea Scheiană has „Rădică-se fum cu mănia lui” “smoke rose up in his wrath”.^[11] MDA2's first record is later, in Dosoftei's verse Psalter.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the smoke of a fire, the word came to mean a hearth and so a household counted for taxes: Neculce writes of raising one soldier from every thirty fumuri.^[11][4] Ciorănescu notes that this sense of “hearth, family” is also found in Medieval Latin and Spanish.^[2] The tax on each chimney was called fumărit.^[2][11]

The plural fumuri took figurative senses: the fumes of wine that go to the head, and conceit or empty pretensions, as in a avea fumuri.^[11][4][13] Formerly a lua fumuri was to be treated by fumigation with mercury.^[11][3] A fum is also a single draw on a pipe or cigarette.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1450 – the first record that Tiktin gives.^[11]
• early 16th century – fum in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• c. 1551–1558 – fum in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[14]
• c. 1660 – fum in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – 21 instances of fum in the Bucharest Bible.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. smoke: solid particles suspended in a gas, given off by incomplete burning or produced on purpose with chemicals.^[4][3]
2. (figurative) A haze in the head, dizziness caused by drink.^[4]
3. A draw on a cigarette or pipe: a trage un fum.^[4][17]
4. (historical) A household, counted around its hearth.^[4][11]
5. (figurative, in the plural) conceit, unjustified pretensions.^[4]
6. A winding flue inside a stove, through which hot gases pass before the chimney.^[4]

Word family

• fuma
• fumat
• fumător
• nefumător
• fumos
• fumuriu
• fumuros
• fumărit
• fumăriță
• înfumura
• înfumurat

Related words

• afuma
• fumega
• Aromanian fum
• Latin fumus

Usage notes

The proverb de unde nu e foc, nu iese fum “there is no smoke without fire” means that every rumour has some truth in it.^[11][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. fum
3. ^ 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, 951
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 418
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 57
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3572
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 182
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 131
10. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 58
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fum
12. ^ a b 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 17:10
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 262
14. ^ 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 78:4
15. ^ 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. fum
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 19:18
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. fum
18. ^ 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. 229