glonț

Forms

glonț n (plural gloanțe)^[1] In Moldavia the word is also a masculine glonte, plural glonți; old texts have a plural glonțuri.^[2][3] Miron Costin writes the usual form: „Așa de departe cât ajungea glonțul puștii” “as far as the musket ball would reach”.^[2]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown in DEX, MDA2, Tiktin and the Romanian Wiktionary,^[4][3][2][5] and the proposals disagree.^[1]

- Cihac derived it from Hungarian, from Hungarian golyócs (from golyó (“ball”)) or galacs (“ball, clew”), and the DA followed him.^[6][7] Șăineanu gave the same Hungarian word, and NODEX compares it.^[8][9] Ciorănescu finds the derivation unsatisfying.^[7] - Scriban saw a variant of grăunte or grunț “grain”, with glonte formed after a plural ⟨glonți⟩.^[10] - Skok started from Serbo-Croatian glonta (“bullet”), which he took from German Flinte (“musket”).^[7] Ciorănescu objects that the German word does not fit and that the Serbian word is rather borrowed from Romanian.^[7] The German word is only recorded in German from the 17th century, after Swedish models.^[11][12] - Ciorănescu himself sees an expressive creation on a root ⟨glo-⟩, the same as in golomoț and clonț, and points to the derivatives gloanță “cannonball”, glonțiș and glonțan “gravel” and glonțuros “stony”.^[7] - The Lexicon of Buda (1825) traced it to Latin glans (“acorn; sling bullet”), a view of its time.^[13]

DER and Scriban agree that Hungarian golonc (“bullet”) is a loan from Romanian.^[7][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1654, in the Romanian text of the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab.^[2] MDA2 has it first in Miron Costin's chronicle (c. 1675), where it is the ball of a musket.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th and 18th centuries the word was used of any ball shot from a firearm, including cannonballs: Nicolae Costin writes of a ball of 67 oka, and the feminine gloanță kept the sense “cannonball” in Transylvania.^[2][3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has glonțul.^[14] The modern sense is the small projectile of a gun, and by extension the cartridge.^[4][3] From “as fast as a bullet” came the adverb glonț “straight and very fast” (a pleca glonț).^[4][2] Ciorănescu also records the senses “heavy object”, only in a phrase for food that lies heavy on the stomach, and “lead sinker of a fishing net”;^[3] MDA2 has a builder's plumb line.^[7][3]

Timeline

• 1654 – the first record Tiktin dates, in the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab.^[2]
• c. 1675 – glonțul puștii “the musket ball” in Miron Costin.^[3][2]
• 1688 – glonțul in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1825 – glonț “ball, sphere” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bullet: a small projectile of steel, copper or lead for firearms;^[4] glonț trasor “tracer bullet”.^[4][9]
2. The front part of a cartridge; by extension, a cartridge.^[3]
3. A plumb line: a lead weight on a string used by builders.^[3]

Adverb

1. Straight and very fast, like a bullet: A plecat glonț acasă. “He shot off home.”^[4][3]

Related words

• Hungarian golonc

Usage notes

The plural is gloanțe; the variant glonte belongs to Moldavia.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. glonț
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1005
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 442
5. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 501
7. ^ a b c d e f g 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. glonț
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 278
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. glonț
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 564
11. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 303
12. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 239
14. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sir 22:16