gheață

Forms

gheață f (plural ghețuri)^[1] The old and regional spelling ghiață appears in a folk tale: „Ea a rămas ghiață-n casă” “she stood frozen with fright in the room”.^[2][3] The old plural was gheți: „Topitu-s-au ghețile” “the ice has melted”.^[2] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word is written гяцэ.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin glacia (“ice”), a by-form of glaciēs found in the Latin glossaries.^{[4][5][6][3][7]} Wiktionary reconstructs the spoken forms as Vulgar Latin *glacium and *glacia.^[1] The origin of the Latin noun is unclear: de Vaan finds no convincing way to derive it from the root of gelū (“frost”), with which it shares its meaning.^[8][1]

The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian gljets, with the feminine gljatsã.^[9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian ghiaccia, French glace and Dalmatian glas.^[5][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name: Ghiață, a spătar (court official), in 1512.^[12][2] In Romanian texts the word appears with the sense “ice” in Coresi's Psalter of 1577, in the plural: „Focul, grindinea, zăpada, ghețile” “fire, hail, snow, ice” (Psalm 148:8), where the Slavonic original has golotŭ.^[2][3][6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is frozen water; the old plural gheți gave way to ghețuri, used for ice floes and the polar ice.^[2][7] In some regions the word also means hail.^[7][3][6] The cold of ice was extended to people: de gheață means “cold, indifferent”, and the noun names the chill of fear, as in Creangă's „eram cu gheața-n spate de frică” “I had ice down my back with fright”.^[6][13][7]

Several phrases are built on it: a se da pe gheață “to slide on the ice”, a (se) sparge gheața or a (se) rupe gheața “to break the ice”, and bani gheață “ready cash”.^[6][7][2] Graur noted zahăr de gheață “sugar candy” from northern Moldavia and explained it as a calque of Russian леденец (ledenec), literally “of ice”.^[14] Tiktin records the phrase too.^[2] Plant names follow the look of the leaves: the ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum), whose leaves bear papillae like ice crystals, and a begonia.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1512 – Ghiață, the name of a spătar, the first record.^[12][2]
• 1577 – ghețile “the ice” in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 148:8).^[3][2]
• 1649 – ghiață in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – gheață in the Bucharest Bible (Job 6:16).^[16]
• 1939 – Scriban records the skating sense of a merge la gheață “to go skating”.^[11]
• 1963 – Graur explains zahăr de gheață “sugar candy” as a calque from Russian.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. ice: water in its solid state, frozen by cold.^[7][3][1]
2. (regional) hail.^[7][3]
3. (in the plural) Large expanses of ice on land or water: ghețurile polare “the polar ice”.^[7][3]
4. (figurative) Coldness, indifference;^[7][3] de gheață “cold, unfeeling”: Ne-a primit cu o privire de gheață.^[7][3]
5. An unpleasant feeling of cold caused by fear or emotion.^[7][3]
6. The ice plant (Mesembryanthemum crystallinum), a herb whose leaves are covered with white papillae.^[7][3]
7. (regional) A begonia (Begonia semperflorens).^[7][3]

Adjective

1. (invariable, in bani gheață) In cash, paid on the spot: A plătit mașina cu bani gheață.^[7][2]

Related words

• Aromanian gljets
• Latin glaciēs

Usage notes

A sparge gheața and a rupe gheața mean to end an awkward silence or get past the first difficulties of an undertaking.^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gheață
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 988
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 61
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b c d e 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. gheață
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 436
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 496
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 507
11. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 551
12. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. gheață
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 375
14. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. gheață
15. ^ 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. ghiață
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iov 6:16