gratie

Forms

gratie f (plural gratii)^[1] An old plural grății and the diminutive grătioară (Bible of 1688) are also recorded.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *gratis, a popular form of Latin crātis (“wickerwork, hurdle”).^{[4][5][6][2][1]} Tiktin calls the etymon probable.^[3] Candrea and Densusianu explain the voiced /g/ for Latin /k/ by the influence of gradus (“step”).^[7] The Romance cognates are Italian grata (which changed declension), Spanish grada and Portuguese grade; Serbo-Croatian grata comes from the Italian word.^[4][8][1] The Latin noun has no secure Indo-European etymology: de Vaan thinks the match with Germanic words for “hurdle” may come from a non-Indo-European source.^[9]

From Romanian the word passed into Ukrainian грата (hrata, “grating”).^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, in the Book of Exodus (38:5).^[3] MDA2's first record is Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), with jghiabul cetății cel cu gratie “the town's gutter with the grating”.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is a crossed lattice of iron bars or woven rods set before windows and doors, and in the plural the bars of such a grating.^[2][6] Miron Costin compares a laced shoe to a grating: „cu legături în cruciș ca gratia” “with straps crossed like a grating”.^[2] In the old texts the word also meant a gridiron, the instrument on which martyrs were burnt: Varlaam's homilies tell how they were laid on iron gratii over the coals.^[2][5] In the Bible of 1688 gratie de foc renders Ancient Greek ἐσχάρα (eskhára, “hearth, brazier”).^[3]

In regional speech the word names a hurdle of woven rods for drying fruit or for a cart, and a raft of such hurdles.^[2][5] The modern sense is the barred window of a prison: după gratii “behind bars”.^[10][1]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – the Palia de la Orăștie, Exodus 38:5.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – Dosoftei's lives of the saints, MDA2's first record.^[5]
• c. 1686–1691 – gratia in Miron Costin's work on the Moldavians.^[2]
• 1688 – gratie and the diminutive grătioară in the Bucharest Bible.^[11][3]
• 1801 – a cart „cu ladă supt gratie” “with a box under the grating” in a document.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Each of the bars set side by side or crossed in the frame of a window, door or shop window, together forming a grating for safety or ornament; usually in the plural.^[6][5][1]
2. după gratii “behind bars”, in prison.^[10][1]
3. (obsolete) a gridiron used to burn condemned people.^[5][1]
4. (regional) a hurdle of woven rods, like a grill.^[5][2]

Word family

• grătar

Related words

• Latin crātis
• Italian grata

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. gratie
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gratie
4. ^ a b c 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
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1017
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 447
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. gratie
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2304
9. ^ 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 Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 406
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ier 36:22