gardă

Forms

gardă f (plural gărzi)^[1] The old forms were gvardie, guardie and gvardă: Alecsandri writes that the Albanian mercenaries at first formed „o guardie domnească” “a princely guard”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French garde (“guard”), which Tiktin says came both through other languages and directly.^[3][5][2][1] MDA2 names Russian гвардия (gvardija) beside French.^[4] The Russian word is from Italian guardia.^[6] The French noun is formed on garder (“to guard”), which is from Frankish *wardōn (“to protect”).^[1][7] Gabinschi puts it in one family with vartă and varda, other loans from the same Germanic root.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Nicolae Costin's chronicle of about 1710, in the forms guardie or gvardie “a guard of soldiers”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

At first the word named a guard of soldiers, such as a prince's guard; the 19th-century garda pieței was the military guard of a town, and also its guardhouse and military prison.^[2][4][8] Barcianu (1886) has gardă națională “national guard, civic militia”.^[9] From the soldiers on watch the sense widened to the duty itself, in civilian life too: de gardă is said of doctors and nurses who stay in the hospital overnight, and of a pharmacy open outside the usual hours.^[5][4] There is also the fencing and boxing sense, the position of defence, with a se pune în gardă “to be on one's guard”, and the guard on the hilt of a sword.^[5][10][11] Recent public bodies are named with it, such as Garda Financiară and Garda Națională de Mediu.^[12] The derivative gardist meant a policeman and, later, a member of the Iron Guard.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1710 – guardie, gvardie in Nicolae Costin's chronicle, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1886 – gardă and gardă națională in Barcianu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1931 – garda pieței, the town's military guardhouse and prison, in CADE.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. guard, watch: the guarding of a military unit, an institution and the like; the person or group keeping it: gardă de onoare “guard of honour”, gardă personală “bodyguard”.^[5][4][1]
2. (in de gardă) On duty; of a doctor, nurse or pharmacy, on duty or open outside the usual hours.^[5][4]
3. (sports) The position of the arms and body a boxer or fencer takes to parry or attack;^[5][10] a se pune în gardă “to take guard; to be on one's guard”.^[5][10]
4. The hilt guard of a sword, the metal piece that protects the hand.^[11][13]
5. (chess) A warning to the opponent that the queen is attacked.^[5]
6. (slang) The police.^[1]

Word family

• gardist

Related words

• vartă
• gvardie
• French garde

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gardă
3. ^ 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. gardă
4. ^ 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 426
6. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
7. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. gardă
9. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 246
10. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. gardă
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 541
12. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. gardă
13. ^ Breban, Vasile (1980), Dicționar al limbii române contemporane de uz curent, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 230