ghid

Forms

ghid m (plural ghizi, feminine equivalent ghidă)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French guide.^[2][3][4][1] MDA2 adds Russian гид (gid) as a second source.^[5]

The French word is a borrowing of the 14th century from Old Occitan guida (“one who leads”), a noun from guidar (“to lead”), or from Italian guida, from guidare; both go back to Gothic *widan, recorded in 𐌲𐌰𐍅𐌹𐌳𐌰𐌽 (gawidan, “to yoke together”).^[6] It replaced the older Old French guie.^[6] Scriban derived it from the French verb guider, influenced by the Occitan and Italian verbs.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dictionaries of the interwar years already have both the person and the book: Șăineanu gives the senses “guide” and “title of information works”, as in ghid de călătorie “travel guide”.^[8] MDA2's first record is the 1957 Lexiconul tehnic român, which has the technical senses.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word has two genders for its two main senses: the masculine ghid (plural ghizi), with a feminine ghidă, is the person who leads tourists or visitors and explains what they see, and the neuter ghid (plural ghiduri) is the book with travel information, maps and directions.^[3][1] Technology added ghid de unde “waveguide” and ghid de fir, the thread guide of a textile machine.^[5] Recent compounds include ghid-interpret “guide-interpreter”, after French guide-interprète, recorded from 1973.^[9]

Timeline

• 1929 – ghid “guide” and “guidebook” in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[8]
• 1939 – the person and the book in Scriban.^[7]
• 1957 – the technical senses in the Lexiconul tehnic român, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• 1973 – the compound ghid-interpret.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine and feminine) A person who leads a group of tourists or visitors and gives them explanations; a guide, călăuză, cicerone.^[3][1]
2. (neuter) A book with travel information, maps and directions for finding one's way in a country, a region or a museum; a guidebook.^[3][1]
3. (neuter) ghid de unde: a waveguide, a medium along which an electromagnetic wave travels.^[3][5]

Word family

• ghida

Usage notes

A separate regional word ghid “scarecrow” is recorded in Moldova.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ghid
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 437
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ghid
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 991
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. guide
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 553
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 274
9. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. ghid
10. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. ghid