gumă

Forms

gumă f (plural gume)^[1] Șincai wrote the Latin form gummi, and gumi survives in gumi arabică “gum arabic”: „lipiți... cu gumi arabică” “stuck... with gum arabic”, in Bassarabescu.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is a modern loan, borrowed from French gomme and Italian gomma according to MDA2, DEX and Wiktionary, whose sources the dictionaries name differently.^[4][5][1] DEX compares the Latin and German words.^[4][5][1] The DA and the DLRM take it from the learned borrowed from Latin gummi, and Ciorănescu dates that Latin source, perhaps transmitted through German Gummi, to the 19th century.^[3][6][7] Tiktin compares New Latin, French and Italian.^[2] Ciorănescu adds that the variant gomă, from the French, was once in general use and survives in the sense “affectation, pedantry”, which French has too.^[7]

The French and Italian words go back through Late Latin gumma to the Classical Latin word, also spelled cummi, taken from Ancient Greek κόμμι (kómmi), itself of Egyptian origin: Egyptian qmyt (“acanthus resin, gum”).^[8][9][1] The Italian word is recorded from the early 14th century.^[10][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1785, for the resin.^[2] The DA's first sense is the sticky substance that flows from some trees of hot countries, best known as gum arabic.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the plant resin the word passed to rubber, and to objects made of it: an elastic band and an eraser for pencil or ink.^[3][5] Tiktin records gumă elastică “rubber” and the colloquial gumilastic “rubber band”; the CADE gives gumilastic and gumilastru as popular words for rubber.^[2][11] Ciorănescu takes gumilastic from Modern Greek.^[7] Gumă de mestecat “chewing gum” is a set phrase.^[5][12] In school slang a gumă is a crib sheet.^[13]

Timeline

• 1785 – the first record.^[2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu lists gumă arabică, gumă elastică “rubber” and gumă rășină “gum resin”.^[14]
• 1931 – the CADE records the eraser and the popular gumilastic, gumilastru “rubber”.^[11]
• 1955–1957 – the DLRLC records the sense “elastic band”.^[15]
• 2007 – gumă “crib sheet” in a slang dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. gum: a sticky substance given off by some plants or made synthetically, which hardens in the air and is used in industry;^[5][4] gumă arabică “gum arabic”.^[5][4]
2. (popular) An elastic band or strip.^[5][4]
3. An eraser, a small piece of rubber for rubbing out pencil or ink.^[5][1]
4. gumă de mestecat: chewing gum.^[5][4]
5. Rubber.^[4][16]
6. (school slang) A crib sheet.^[13]

Word family

• gumilastic

Related words

• cauciuc
• radieră
• French gomme
• Italian gomma

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. gumă
3. ^ a b c d 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. gumă
4. ^ 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, 1030
5. ^ 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. 454
6. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. gumă
7. ^ 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. gumă
8. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. gumă
12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. gumă
13. ^ a b c Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. gumă
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 285
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 426
16. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. gumă