furtună

Forms

furtună f (plural furtuni)^[1] Old texts also have fortună: Tiktin cites it from Moxa's chronicle, and Neculce writes that Miron Costin did not expect „o fortună ca aceea” “such a misfortune”.^[2][3] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written фуртунэ.^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: Ciorănescu takes it as inherited from Latin fortūna (“fortune, luck”), like the Romance words that also mean “storm”: Italian fortuna, French fortune and Spanish fortuna.^[4] He argues that the shift from “fate” to “storm” is older than the Romance languages, since Medieval Latin fortuna already had it, and that the old Romanian sense “bad luck” points straight to Latin; so he sees no need for a Greek source.^[4] The DA also gives Latin, perhaps through Greek, and Wiktionary prefers Latin as well.^[3][1]

DEX 2009, NODEX and DLRM instead make it borrowed from Modern Greek φουρτούνα (fourtoúna), and MDA2 names both the Greek and the Latin word.^[5][6][7][8] Tiktin traces it to the Italian word in its sense “storm at sea”, which sailors passed on to the Turks and the Greeks, who gave it to the Romanians; though he does not rule out direct contact with the Genoese.^[2] The Greek word is Byzantine Greek φουρτούνα (fourtoúna) in medieval texts, from Venetian fortuna, which goes back to the Latin word for “fortune, good or bad”.^[9][10] The REW explains “storm” as a sailors' euphemism that spread east with the Genoese and Venetian trade of the 13th to 15th centuries, and Nocentini also calls it a sailors' euphemism.^[11][12] Gabinschi gives both routes as possible.^[13]

The word lives south of the Danube as Aromanian furtunã and Megleno-Romanian furtună.^[4][14][15] Ciorănescu thinks Albanian furtunë may come from Greek, and the Bulgarian word from Greek or Romanian; the Ukrainian word and Hungarian furtina “storm”, he says, certainly come from Romanian.^[4] The Latin noun is formed on fors (“chance, luck”).^[16][17]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1235.^[2] In Romanian texts the word appears in the 17th century: Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses it to gloss Slavonic words for a whirlwind,^[18] and the Bible of 1688 has the storm that God sent on the sea in the book of Jonah.^[19][2] The chroniclers also used it in the old sense “bad luck, misfortune”: Neculce, Acsinti Uricarul and Muste write of a furtună that befell a ruler.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DA separates two old senses, “ill fate, misfortune” in the chroniclers and “storm”, which survives.^[3] MDA2 marks “misfortune” as obsolete, and lists “destiny” and “luck” as Latinist uses.^[8] The storm sense was often the storm at sea, and Tiktin quotes furtună mare from a story of Jonah.^[3][2]

From the 19th century the word took figurative senses: an inner turmoil, and unrest or revolt in a state.^[3][7] Furtună de… means a great many of something, as in furtună de aplauze “a storm of applause”.^[20] Furtună solară “solar storm” is a modern technical phrase.^[5] The proverb cine seamănă vânt culege furtună “who sows the wind reaps the storm” is recorded by Zanne.^[3][2]

Timeline

• 1235 – the first record that Tiktin gives.^[2]
• 1649 – furtună in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[18]
• 1688 – furtună “storm at sea” in the Bucharest Bible (Jonah 1:4).^[19]
• 18th century – furtună and fortună “misfortune” in Neculce and other chroniclers.^[3]
• 1955 – the figurative senses “inner turmoil” and “revolt” in the DLRLC.^[20]

Meanings

Noun

1. A storm: a strong wind with heavy showers of rain or hail and lightning.^[5][6][1]
2. A storm at sea, which raises high waves; also a sandstorm in the desert.^[8]
3. furtună solară: a solar storm, a sudden burst of solar activity.^[5]
4. (figurative) Inner turmoil, strong agitation of the mind: O furtună se ridică în sufletul ei.^[5][20]
5. (figurative) revolt, uprising.^[5][1]
6. (obsolete) Bad luck, misfortune.^[8][3][1]

Word family

• furtunat
• furtunatic
• furtunos

Related words

• Aromanian furtunã
• Latin fortūna

Usage notes

Furtună de… with a noun means “a great many”: o furtună de aplauze.^[5][20]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. furtúnă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. furtună
4. ^ a b c d 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. furtună
5. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 421
6. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. furtună
7. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. furtună
8. ^ 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, 957
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1614
10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3458
12. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 107
14. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 482
15. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 186
16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
18. ^ 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. furtună
19. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iona 1:4
20. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 347