insulă

Forms

insulă f (plural insule)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowing borrowed from Latin īnsula (“island”).^{[1][2][3][4][5]} The CADE of 1931 gives French as its source instead.^[6] Scriban sets it beside Italian isola, the inherited Italian form of the same Latin word.^[7]

The origin of the Latin word is unclear.^[8] It resembles Ancient Greek νῆσος (nêsos, “island”) and the Celtic words for “island”, such as Irish inis and Welsh ynys, but the relation is not settled.^[8][1] An old explanation takes it from a phrase “in the sea”, with salum (“the open sea”); de Vaan finds this possible in its sounds but weak in meaning, and thinks the word may be a loan from an unknown language.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record of the word is from 1793.^[4] In 1848 Negulici's dictionary of neologisms explained it as a stretch of land surrounded by water and glossed it with the older word ostrov.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The word took its place beside the Slavic ostrov, which the dictionaries of the 19th and early 20th centuries still used to explain it.^[9][6][7] Alecsandri used it figuratively, for patches of forest or cloud: insule de codri, insulă de nori.^[10][11] Scriban also records the Latin sense of a block of houses surrounded by streets.^[7]

The set phrase insulă plutitoare names a floating mass of roots and broken plants, the plaur of the Danube Delta.^[3][12] More recent dictionaries add a traffic island between lanes and the island superstructure of an aircraft carrier.^[13][5]

Timeline

• 1793 – the first record cited by Tiktin.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, glossed with ostrov.^[9]
• 1886 – Barcianu renders it with German Insel and Eiland.^[14]
• 1931 – the CADE defines it with ostrov and derives it from French.^[6]
• 1939 – Scriban adds the sense “block of houses”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. An island: a piece of land surrounded by water, in an ocean, a sea or a lake or between the arms of a river.^[2][3][1]
2. (figurative) A group of things of one kind that stands out from its surroundings.^[2][3]
3. insulă plutitoare: a floating island of tangled roots and broken plants drifting on the water; plaur.^[3][12]
4. A traffic island between lanes, or a green strip in the middle of a street.^[13][5]
5. The superstructure of an aircraft carrier.^[5]

Related words

• ostrov
• plaur
• Latin īnsula

Usage notes

Tiktin records an older form insolă.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 513
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1145
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. insulă
5. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. insulă
6. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. insulă
7. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 647
8. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. insulă
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 333
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 527
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 496
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. insulă
14. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 281