funie

Forms

funie f (plural funii)^[1] The old language and Aromanian have fune: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 tells how „l-au slobozit cu o fune pre fereastră” “they let him down by a rope through the window”.^[2][3] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has the plural funi.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūnis (“rope, cable”) (accusative ⟨fūnem⟩).^{[5][6][7][2][1]} The old form was fune.^[5][3] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: de Vaan suggests an o-grade derivative of the root of fīlum (“thread”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰoiH-ni- (“rope”).^[8]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian fune and Megleno-Romanian funi.^[5][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian fune and Old French fun.^[11][5] The use of the word as a measure of land has parallels in Medieval Latin and Old Sardinian;^[6] Ciorănescu therefore rejects Bogrea's attempt to link this use with fundus (“bottom; estate”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in Acts 27:32, where the soldiers cut the ropes of the boat.^[6][3][2]

Semantic evolution

Besides “rope”, the word named a measuring cord and then a measure of length for land: Tiktin cites a document of 1572 in which it equals 12 fathoms, and later a long and a short funie of 20 and 10 fathoms.^[3][7] From the measure came the sense “strip of land”: a document of 1596 sells a share în funea Puii “in Puia's strip”.^[3] Today funie de moșie (or de pământ) is a narrow strip of land.^[7] A string of onions or garlic is funie de ceapă or de usturoi, and in foundries a plait of straw or shavings for long cores is a funie.^[7][12]

Many idioms use the word: a vorbi de funie în casa spânzuratului “to speak of rope in the hanged man's house”, drept ca funia în traistă “as straight as a rope in a bag”, that is crooked or dishonest, and a i se apropia funia de par “to come to the end of one's tether”.^[7][2] Ciorănescu, following Capidan, notes that Bulgarian borrowed the word from Romanian.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[6][3]
• 1570 – the singular fune and the plural funi in Coresi's Psalter.^[13][4]
• 1572 – a measure of land of 12 fathoms in a document.^[3]
• 1596 – a strip of land, în funea Puii.^[3]
• 1688 – funiile in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rope, a thick cord twisted from several strands;^[7][6][1] funie de ceapă (or de usturoi) a string of onions (or garlic).^[7][6][1]
2. (dated) An old unit of length for measuring land, whose value varied over time.^[7][3]
3. funie de moșie (or de pământ): a narrow strip of land.^[7][15]
4. (technical) A plait of straw or wood shavings used for long cores in casting moulds.^[7]

Word family

• funar
• funire
• înfunia
• funișoară

Related words

• Aromanian fune
• Latin fūnis

Usage notes

A juca pe funie means “to walk the tightrope” and, figuratively, “to be skilful”.^[7][6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. funie
3. ^ 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. funie
4. ^ 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 15:6
5. ^ 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. funie
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 954
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 420
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 478
10. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 182
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3689
12. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 109
13. ^ 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 77:60
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 35:18
15. ^ Constantinescu, Grigore; Constantinescu, Eugenia (2014), Glosar. Arealul etnocultural Argeș-Muscel, p. 47