grătar

Forms

grătar n (plural grătare)^[1] Old texts have grătariu: „O întinseră pre grătariu de o frigea pe foc” “they stretched her out on the gridiron and roasted her over the fire” (Dosoftei, Viața și petrecerea sfinților).^[2][3] A rare plural grătaruri occurs beside grătare.^[3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *gratārium, from *gratis, a variant of Latin crātis (“wickerwork, hurdle”).^[4][1][5] Pușcariu, the DA and CADE start instead from *gratālis, formed on the same word.^[2][3][6][7] Ciorănescu treats it as formed from Romanian gratie + -ar, from the noun for a bar or grating, itself from the spoken Latin form with /g/.^[7] MDA2 gives no firm etymon, only a comparison with Latin.^[8]

The Latin noun had a diminutive crātīcula (“gridiron”).^[9] De Vaan finds no Indo-European root for it and thinks its likeness to Gothic 𐌷𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳𐍃 (haurds, “door”) may be a shared borrowing.^[9]

Romanian lent the word to its neighbours: Ukrainian ґратар (gratar) is a loan from it, and so is a Bulgarian surname.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1642, in the Govora homiliary (Cazania de la Govora).^[2] A Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660 has grătarul.^[10] Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686) use it of the gridiron on which a martyr was roasted, the first record in MDA2.^[8][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the cooking grill and the gridiron of martyrdom; the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has a grătariu de aramă, a grating of brass.^[3][2] From there the word spread to other sets of parallel bars: the grate of a stove through which the ash falls, the inclined rack above a manger that holds the hay, a lattice for fruit trees and a doormat of bars for scraping shoes.^[3][2][11] A horse in a folk song wishes for la grătar cu fân “at the rack with hay”.^[2][3] Caragiale used it of the ribcage.^[3][2]

Modern technical language uses it for the grates of furnaces, the screens of hydraulic works and mines, and the grid of an electron tube.^[4][8] The meat or fish cooked on the grill is also called grătar, and la grătar means “grilled”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1642 – the first record, in the Govora homiliary.^[2]
• c. 1660 – grătarul in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1682–1686 – grătariu “gridiron” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[8][2]
• 1688 – grătariu de aramă “brass grating” in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it with German Bratrost “grill”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A set of parallel or crossed metal bars, or a perforated plate, used in furnaces to let in air and drop the ash, and in industry to screen raw materials or keep debris out of hydraulic works; a grate.^[4][1]
2. A grill or gridiron on which meat, fish or mushrooms are cooked; by extension, the food cooked on it.^[4][1] La grătar: grilled.^[4]
3. A grid of wooden or iron bars for wiping the soles of shoes.^[4]
4. The slanting rack above a manger, fixed along the wall, into which hay is put.^[4][8]
5. (technology) A grilă.^[4]
6. A grating of bars protecting doors and windows.^[8]
7. (rare) The ribcage.^[8][3]

Word family

• grătăraș

Related words

• gratie
• Latin crātis

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. grătar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. grătar
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 448
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. grătar
7. ^ a b 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. gratie
8. ^ 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, 1019
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. grătarul
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 574
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 257