junglă

Forms

junglă f (plural jungle)^[1] Alecsandri used a masculine juglu: „Șerpi gigantici stau în jugli tupilați” “giant snakes lie hidden in the jungles”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French jungle.^[4][3][2][1] French took the word in 1796 from English jungle, which goes back to Hindustani जंगल (jaṅgal, “uninhabited land, wilderness”), from a Sanskrit word for a desert or wild place.^[5][2][6] Scriban gave French and English together as the source.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Alecsandri's masculine juglu in a poem of the third volume of his collected poems (1875), with the jungle as the home of giant snakes.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The DA defined the jungle as uncultivated, often marshy land, chiefly in India, covered in reeds, bamboo and climbing plants, where wild beasts live, and cited the title Cartea junglei for Kipling's Jungle Book.^[2] Scriban still placed it in India and named the tigers that live there.^[7] The modern definition is wider: any dense tropical or subtropical forest.^[4] The figurative sense, a society where the strongest rule, lives above all in legea junglei “the law of the jungle”.^[8][9][3]

Timeline

• 1875 – the masculine juglu in Alecsandri's collected poems, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1939 – Scriban defines junglă as marshy Indian land of reeds and thickets.^[7]
• 1955–1957 – DLRLC records legea junglei.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A jungle: dense tropical or subtropical forest, hard to cross, with thick undergrowth and lianas, often marshy.^[4][3]
2. (figurative) A society or situation where the strongest rule;^[8][3] legea junglei “the law of the jungle”.^[8][3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. junglă
3. ^ 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, 1293
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 569
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 720
8. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. junglă
9. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 708