gară

Forms

gară f (plural gări)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French gare.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} Bulgarian гара (gara) has the same French source.^[7]

The French noun is formed on garer (“to moor, to put in shelter”),^[1][8] a word of seafaring that the DHLF would derive from Old Norse varask (“to be on one's guard”), of Germanic origin.^[8] In French it first meant a stretch of river where boats could pass or moor (1690), then on the railways a double stretch of track where trains could pass (1831). From 1835 it named the buildings and installations for passengers and goods.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1859, in volume IV of the Enciclopedia.^[5] The DA, published from 1913, defines it as a railway stop with a building where travellers wait for the trains and goods are stored.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the French sense of the railway station, its buildings and installations.^[2][9] After the French model Romanian also speaks of a gară maritimă or fluvială for the port installations for passengers and goods,^[2][6] and NODEX extends it to the stops of other public transport.^[10] The French family came with it: garaj, from French garage, and the verb gara “to park”, from garer, and Romanian has the compounds autogară “bus station” and aerogară “air terminal”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1859 – the first record, in the Enciclopedia.^[5]
• 1913 – the DA's entry, MDA2's first record.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A railway station: the buildings, installations and tracks where trains stop to take up and set down passengers and to load and unload goods.^[2][1]
2. Gară maritimă or fluvială: the port buildings and installations for the boarding and landing of passengers and goods.^[2][6]
3. A terminal for other public transport: gară auto.^[10]

Related words

• garaj
• autogară
• aerogară

Usage notes

Several regional words are spelled the same.^[3] In Banat gară means the ash of burnt straw, from Serbo-Croatian gar according to MDA2 and Bogrea.^[3][4] In Moldavia and Bukovina an old gară meant slander or an outcry, from Polish gwar (“noise”);^[9][3][11] Kogălniceanu wrote of „a doua gară ce s-a ridicat în contra mea” “the second outcry raised against me”.^[9][3][11] Regionally oaie gară is a sheep black on the muzzle, of unknown origin.^[3] The plural of the station word is gări.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 426
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 964
4. ^ a b c 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. gară
5. ^ 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. gară
6. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 230
8. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ 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. gară
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional
11. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 114