glumă

Forms

glumă f (plural glume)^[1] A regional variant is glumbă.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic глоумъ (glumŭ), a masculine noun.^[4][2][1] DEX and MDA2 also name Bulgarian глума (gluma, “joke, jest”).^[4][2] Ciorănescu and the DA name the Slavonic word and compare the same word in Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian глу́ма (glúma).^[5][6] The BER holds that the Romanian noun, with glumi and glumeț, was taken from Bulgarian.^[7]

Ciorănescu explains the change from the Slavonic masculine to a feminine in three ways: from an inflected case of the Slavonic noun, from confusion with a Slavonic feminine meaning “impudence”, or, more likely, from a singular made up from the plural “glume”.^[5] He rejects Capidan's view that the Bulgarian word came from Romanian.^[5]

The Slavonic noun is from Proto-Slavic *glumъ, recorded in Old Church Slavonic for idle talk, mockery and disorder.^[8][9] Vasmer relates it to Old Norse glaumr (“noisy merriment”) and Ancient Greek χλεύη (khleúē, “joke, mockery”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to a document of 1632.^[3] Varlaam's Cazania of 1643 has it beside its synonym șagă: „voroavele ... ceale de glume și de șagă” “the jesting and joking talk” of young people.^[6][2] In 1649 Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon gives it for Slavonic глумъ.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed close to the first records: words or deeds meant to make people laugh.^[6] Ureche's chronicle says that Bogdan-vodă liked to hear jokes and ribaldry, glume și măscării.^[6] Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon of Buda in 1825 render it with Latin jocus.^[12][13] Scriban treats it as a western word, the east preferring șagă.^[14]

Many phrases grew round it: în glumă “in jest”, fără glumă “seriously”, nu-i (de) glumă “it is no joke” and the intensifying nu glumă! “and no mistake”, as in Creangă's carte se învăța acolo, nu glumă.^[6][3][4] Old texts also have the verb glumi for “to be busy” and “to slander”, senses Ciorănescu takes for literary loans from Slavonic.^[5]

Timeline

• 1632 – the first record, in a document.^[3]
• 1643 – glume in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2][6]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic глумъ.^[11]
• 1688 – glume in the Bucharest Bible (Ephesians 5:4).^[15]
• 1801 – gluma “jocus” in Klein's dictionary.^[12]
• 1825 – în glumă “in jest” and fără glumă “without joking” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A joke: a witty remark or a short funny story, often with an unexpected ending, told to make people laugh: Ne-a spus o glumă despre un pescar.^[4][2]
2. A funny deed; a prank.^[4][1]

Word family

• glumeț

Related words

• glumi
• șagă
• Old Church Slavonic глоумъ (glumŭ)

Usage notes

Common phrases: în glumă “in jest, without malice”, fără glumă “seriously”, a lua ceva în glumă “not to take something seriously”, a lăsa gluma la o parte “to speak seriously”, a nu ști de glumă “not to be able to take a joke” and a se întrece cu gluma “to go too far”.^[4][2]

A separate glumă (DEX's glumă²) is a botanical term, the glume or bract at the base of each spikelet of a grass.^[4] It is a borrowing from French glume, from Latin glūma (“husk”).^[16][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1006
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. glumă
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. ^ a b c d 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. glumă
6. ^ 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. glumă
7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 251
8. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
11. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
12. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 366
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. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 565
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Eph 5:4
16. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. glumă