grămadă

Forms

grămadă f (plural grămezi)^[1] The old plural was grămăzi (also grămădzi): „au vădzut ... cu ochii săi grămădzi mari de oase” “he saw with his own eyes great heaps of bones” (a 17th-century manuscript).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic грамада (gramada, “heap, pile”).^[3][1][4] Ciorănescu and the DA name the South Slavic form, Bulgarian грамада (gramada) and the Serbian word.^[5][6] The Slavonic word, also written громада (gromada), is from Proto-Slavic *gromada (“heap, pile”).^[7][8][1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian grãmadã and Megleno-Romanian grămadă.^[5][9][10] Capidan takes the Megleno-Romanian word from Bulgarian.^[10] The same Slavic word was borrowed by Hungarian garmada (“heap”) and Albanian gërmadhë (“ruin”), which Ciorănescu compares, and Polish gromada means “village community”, the sense the DA compares for the Bukovinian sense of the Romanian word.^{[5][11][1][6]} Ciorănescu also cites Lahovary's view that the word is older than Indo-European.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the personal name Grămadă in a Slavo-Romanian document of 1537.^[2] As a common noun it appears in the 17th century: Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 uses it for Slavonic words for a crowd and a heap.^[12] MDA2 dates it from the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a heap of things laid one on top of another.^[6][4] From it came “a large quantity” and “a crowd”: o grămadă de “a lot of”, Turcii vin grămadă “the Turks come in swarms” in Alecsandri's collection of folk poetry.^[6][2][3] Used as an adverb it describes a fall in a heap, unconscious: a cădea grămadă;^[6][4] a face pe cineva grămadă is “to strike someone down, to kill”.^[6][4]

In Moldavia and Bukovina the word also meant the village community, the whole of a commune's people.^[5][3] Rugby gave it the sense “scrum”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1537 – Grămadă as a personal name in a Slavo-Romanian document.^[2]
• 1649 – grămadă “crowd, heap” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – grămadă in the Bucharest Bible, MDA2's first record.^[3][13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heap or pile: a large quantity of things gathered in one place, one on top of another; morman.^[4][3][1]
2. (as an adverb) In a heap, in large numbers;^[4][3] a cădea grămadă “to collapse in a heap”.^[4][3]
3. (colloquial) o grămadă de “a lot of”: Am o grămadă de treabă.^[3][2]
4. A crowd of people or animals together; mulțime.^[4][5]
5. (rugby) A scrum; meleu.^[4][3]
6. (regional) The village community, all the people of a commune.^[3][5]

Word family

• îngrămădeală
• grămădi
• îngrămădi

Related words

• Aromanian grãmadã
• Old Church Slavonic грамада (gramada)

Usage notes

Claie peste grămadă means “higgledy-piggledy, all on top of one another”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. grămadă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1018
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 448
5. ^ 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. grămadă
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. grămadă
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. грамада
8. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 190
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 499
10. ^ a b Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 143
11. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 1032
12. ^ 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, p. s.v. grămadă
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Josh 7:26
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 573