gheată

Forms

gheată f (plural ghete)^[1] Moldavian has the variant ghetă, which Scriban uses as his headword.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian ghetta (“gaiter”), as DEX, MDA2, the DA, Tiktin and Ciorănescu agree.^{[5][6][7][4][2]} Wiktionary gives the same source.^[1] Ciorănescu compares Modern Greek γκέττα (nkétta), and notes that the word is a doublet of ghetră “gaiter”, which came straight from French.^[2][1]

The Italian word is a Gallicism of the late 18th century, first recorded in 1780: it is guêtre with the ending replaced by -etta.^[8][9] The French word, in this shape from 1538 and in older forms from 1426, is probably from Frankish *wrist (“instep”).^[10][9] The DELI calls this etymon rather bold for a word recorded only from the 15th century.^[8]

Bulgarian borrowed the word from Romanian as Bulgarian гета (geta).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1868, in Barcianu's dictionary, with the sense “laced boot”.^[4] MDA2 gives as its first record a passage of Slavici quoted by Tiktin, where Budulea cleans the professor's boots and clothes.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The Italian and French words name a gaiter, and Ciorănescu records that sense as old and Moldavian for Romanian gheată.^[2][8] MDA2 has an old sense “shoe”.^[6] The usual sense became the ankle boot: in the early 20th century the DA described it as the ordinary footwear of townspeople, which villagers were also starting to wear.^[7] Folk verse took it up (trei perechi de ghete-am rupt “I wore out three pairs of boots”), and the idiom a-l strânge ghetele “to be in a tight spot” is recorded by Zanne.^[7][11] Regionally it is also the name of an unidentified flower.^[7][6]

Timeline

• 1780 – Italian ghetta “gaiter” first recorded.^[8]
• 1868 – Romanian gheată in Barcianu's dictionary, the first record.^[4]
• 1931 – CADE defines it as the usual footwear of townspeople, reaching above the ankle.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ankle boot: footwear of leather or a synthetic imitation that covers the foot to above the ankle.^[5][13]
2. (obsolete) A shoe; in old Moldavian, a gaiter.^[6][2]
3. (regional, botany) The name of a flower not more closely identified.^[6][7]

Related words

• ghetră
• Italian ghetta
• French guêtre

Usage notes

The word is used mostly in the plural, ghete.^[13] The idiom a-l strânge ghetele (pe cineva) means “to be in a difficult situation”.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. gheată
3. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 551
4. ^ 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. gheată
5. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 436
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 988
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. gheată
8. ^ a b c d Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 375
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional