galben

Forms

galben m or n (feminine singular galbenă, masculine plural galbeni, feminine/neuter plural galbene)^[1] Regional variants are galbăn, galbân and galbin;^[2][3][4] Tiktin gives galbin as colloquial and galbăn as Moldavian.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin galbinus (“greenish-yellow”).^{[5][2][4][1][6]} The Latin word is first found in imperial authors such as Petronius and Martial, of greenish-yellow clothes, and not in Republican Latin.^[7][1] Its origin is unclear: Lewis and Short derive it from galbanum or from galbus, and Wiktionary calls it unknown.^[8][1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian galbin and Megleno-Romanian galbin.^[5][9][1] Ciorănescu compares Albanian gjelbër, which Wiktionary takes from the same Latin word, and French jaune.^[5][1] The Romance continuants include Old French jalne, from which Italian giallo is borrowed, and Spanish jalde.^[6] For the name of the gold coin Ciorănescu compares Portuguese amarela.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name, Galbinul, in a charter of 1456.^[3] MDA2 dates the adjective in Romanian texts to the Gospel book of 1574.^[2] The noun for the gold coin is in Mardarie's lexicon of 1649, where galben glosses Slavonic words for a gold coin.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is the colour of gold or lemon; said of the face it means “pale”, of hair “blond”, and of a horse “dun”.^[4][3] Galben ca ceara “as yellow as wax” is said of someone pale from illness or fear.^[4][2]

As a masculine noun, galben names the foreign gold coins, ducats, that circulated in the Romanian principalities;^[4][3] Neculce notes that the ducat stood at four lei at the time.^[4][3] Galben împărătesc was the Austrian ducat.^[3] The neuter noun is the colour itself and, in modern technical use, a yellow pigment.^[4][11] Ciorănescu reports, after Capidan, that Bulgarian galbin “ducat” and a Modern Greek form come from Romanian, and Vlax Romani has gàlbeno from it.^[5][1] In the alert codes of the 2000s cod galben marks a moderate danger.^[12]

Timeline

• 1456 – Galbinul, a personal name, the first record.^[3]
• 1574 – galben in the Gospel book.^[2]
• 1649 – galben “gold coin” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – the plural galbeni in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. yellow: of the colour of gold or lemon;^[4][2] friguri galbene “yellow fever”.^[4][2]
2. Of the face: pale; of human hair: blond; of horses: dun.^[4]

Noun

1. (neuter) The colour yellow; a yellow pigment: galben de crom.^[4]
2. (masculine) A gold coin, a ducat, of various foreign issues.^[4][3]
3. (feminine, in galbenă de Odobești) A grape variety with greenish-yellow berries.^[4]

Word family

• gălbenuș
• gălbui
• îngălbeni
• gălbeneală
• gălbenare
• gălbenel
• gălbior
• gălbenaș
• gălbeniță

Related words

• Aromanian galbin
• Latin galbinus

Usage notes

A i se face galben înaintea ochilor means “to feel dizzy, to feel faint”.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 961
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. galben
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 424
5. ^ a b c d e 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. galben
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3646
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 187
10. ^ 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. galben
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 352
12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. galben
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 24:22