hârtie

Forms

hârtie f (plural hârtii)^[1] Until 1993 the word was spelled hîrtie, the form under which DER, Scriban and DLRLC list it.^[2][3][4] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) spells it etymologically, hărthíe, and glosses it with Latin charta, papyrus.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic харътиꙗ (xarŭtija, “papyrus, paper”), the word the Slavonic texts use for Ancient Greek χάρτης (khártēs).^[6][7][1][8] The Slavonic word comes from Byzantine Greek χαρτί (khartí), plural χαρτιά (khartiá).^[1][6] The sources weigh the two routes differently: DEX, NODEX and the DA name only the Slavonic form,^[7][9][6] Tiktin derives the word from χαρτία (khartía), partly through Slavonic,^[10] MDA2 lists Greek, Russian and Slavonic forms together,^[11] and Ciorănescu takes it from the Greek plural, in part through Bulgarian хартия (hartija) and Serbo-Croatian хартија (hartija).^[2] Șăineanu gave Byzantine Greek as its source in 1929.^[12]

The word has cognates south of the Danube: Aromanian hãrtii, which Papahagi takes straight from Greek.^[13][14][1] The same Greek root reached Romanian by other routes in carte, through Latin, and hartă, straight from Greek, and Ciorănescu and the DA call them its doublets.^{[2][6][1][15]}

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1481, in the Romanian words of the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[10] The first Romanian text with the word is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 39).^[16] MDA2's first record is a passage of Dimitrie Cantemir, and the DA quotes it: „Cu condeiul hârtia au muruit” “with the pen he blackened the paper”.^[11][6]

Semantic evolution

From the material for writing the word passed to a written sheet and then to any official paper: an act, a document, a petition or a receipt.^[6][17][7] A chronicle quoted by Tiktin uses it for a tax receipt given to labourers, a sense he marks as obsolete.^[10][12] By 1886 it also meant paper money and a banknote, and hârtie-monedă “paper money” was formed.^[7][18][3] In the dialects it also means a letter, especially an official one: a summons or a notice from the army.^[19][9] Boxing borrowed it for a junior weight class.^[7][11]

Ciorănescu records the derivatives hârțoagă “worthless paper, old document”, with a pejorative suffix, and hârțogărie “red tape”.^[2] Tiktin adds the diminutives hârtiuță and hârtioară.^[10] Ciorănescu notes that the first paper mill in Moldavia dates from 1583 and in Wallachia from about 1640.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1481 – the word in the Slavonic–Romanian documents, the first record.^[10]
• c. 1500–1520 – hîrtie in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalm 39.^[16]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing Slavonic хартиа and бумага.^[20]
• 1688 – hârtie in the Bucharest Bible, in Isaiah and Jeremiah.^[21]
• 1771 – a ream of post paper, hărtie de poștă, in a document published by Iorga.^[6]
• 1801 – Haertíe, glossed Latin carta, in Klein's dictionary.^[22]
• 1886 – bani de hârtie “paper money” and hârtie-monetă in Barcianu's dictionary.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. paper: a material made in thin sheets, now mostly from cellulose, used for writing, printing, drawing and wrapping;^[7][11][1] a pune pe hârtie “to put down in writing”.^[7][11][1]
2. A sheet of paper with something written or printed on it.^[7][11]
3. An official paper: a document, an act or a letter.^[7][9]
4. A paper banknote;^[7][11] hârtie de valoare “security”, a paper that gives its holder a right to dividends or interest.^[7][11]
5. (sport) A junior weight class in boxing, between 45 and 48 kg.^[7][11]

Word family

• hârțoagă
• hârțogărie
• hârtiuță

Related words

• carte
• hartă
• Aromanian hãrtii

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. hîrtie
3. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 600
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 460
5. ^ 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. 258
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. hârtie
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 463
8. ^ 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. харътиꙗ
9. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. hârtie
10. ^ 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. hârtie
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1055
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 292
13. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 551
14. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
15. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 31
16. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 39:11
17. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. hîrtie
18. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 265
19. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 129
20. ^ 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. hîrtie
21. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Isaiah 8:1
22. ^ 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. 370