galerie

Forms

galerie f (plural galerii)^[1] An old and popular variant gălărie is recorded in Gorjan and in a collection of folk songs.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French galerie.^[2][4][5][1] MDA2 compares Italian galleria and German Galerie, and Tiktin and Scriban name the Italian word beside the French.^[3][6][7]

The French word is recorded from 1316; the DHLF takes it from Italian, while Nocentini derives the Italian word from French.^[8][9] Both go back to Medieval Latin galeria (“covered porch”), recorded from the 9th century.^[8][10] This is thought to be an alteration of galilaea (“church porch”), a figurative use of the place name Latin Galilaea (“Galilee”): the porch, where laymen and the unbaptized stood, was compared to Galilee, the land of the Gentiles in the Bible.^{[11][10][8][9]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1785.^[6] MDA2's first record is in Golescu's travel notes (1826), where it is a long hall or arcade for walking: stone columns „asupra cărora este galeria spre plimbare” “on which stands the gallery for strolling”.^[3][2] Negulici (1848) defines it as a long hall for walking or for showing paintings, statues and curiosities, and as a connecting corridor.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From the hall or corridor the word passed to a room where paintings are shown (galerie de tablouri, in Maiorescu) and to the pictures themselves.^[2] By analogy it named a vaulted underground passage in a mine, and later a channel of a hydrotechnical work and the burrow an animal digs.^[2][4]

In the theatre it is the highest balcony, and by extension its public; since that public was the poorest and least educated, the word took on a contemptuous sense, “the rabble”, as in Ghica's remark that the journalists' only concern was to make an impression on the gallery.^[2] Today a face galerie means to cheer noisily at a show or a match.^[4] Scriban also records the onlookers at a game of chance.^[7] Other analogical senses are a rod from which curtains hang and a metal tray before a stove that catches the falling coals.^[2][13] The press of the 2000s added galerie comercială “shopping arcade”.^[14]

Timeline

• 1785 – the first record.^[6]
• 1826 – a gallery for strolling in Golescu's travel notes.^[3][2]
• 1848 – Negulici defines the hall for walking or for exhibitions.^[12]
• 1870 – Costinescu adds a long veranda, cerdac lung.^[15]
• 2007 – galerie comercială “shopping arcade” in the press.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An underground tunnel that gives miners access to a deposit.^[4][3][1]
2. An underground channel joining two points of a hydrotechnical work.^[4]
3. A burrow, often branching, that an animal digs for shelter.^[4]
4. A long, often vaulted corridor inside or outside a building, used as a passage or for walking.^[4][3]
5. A museum or a room of one in which paintings and sculptures are shown; a series of exhibited pictures: Galeria de pictură se deschide la zece.^[4]
6. A shop that sells works of art; in the plural, a department store.^[4]
7. The highest balcony of a theatre;^[4] (colloquial) the public in it, and by extension a noisy crowd at a show or meeting: a face galerie “to cheer loudly”.^[4]
8. A wooden or metal curtain rod.^[4]
9. A metal tray put in front of a stove.^[4]

Related words

• Italian galleria
• German Galerie

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. galerie
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 961
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 424
5. ^ 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. galerie
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. galerie
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 539
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ a b Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
11. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter
12. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. galerie
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 266
14. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE)
15. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 468