lanț

Forms

lanț n (plural lanțuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is a Slavic loan whose route into Romanian is disputed.^[2][3] Ciorănescu takes it borrowed from Old Church Slavonic ланьць (lanĭcĭ) through Hungarian lánc, after Miklosich, Cihac, Tiktin, Drăganu, Rosetti and Gáldi, and notes that Procopovici argued for a direct borrowing from Slavic instead.^[2] The DLR derives it from the Slavonic word and compares Bulgarian and Hungarian.^[3] Tiktin gives the same Slavonic source.^[3][4] MDA2 names Bulgarian ланец (lanec) and the Hungarian word as its sources, and DEX the Bulgarian word alone.^[5][6] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary counts the Romanian word among the loans of Bulgarian ланц (lanc), a form made from the plural ланци (lanci) of the noun.^[7][7]

The word is spread over Central and Eastern Europe: Serbo-Croatian lanac, Polish łańcuch and Romani láncos are among its relatives.^[2][1] Its further origin is unclear.^[1][8] Wiktionary and Scriban derive the Slavic and Hungarian words from Middle High German lanne (“chain”), which Wiktionary traces through Old High German lanna (“metal sheet; chain”) to Latin lāmina (“thin sheet of metal”).^[1][9] The Hungarian etymological dictionaries leave the Hungarian word of uncertain origin, perhaps a loan from a North Slavic form like Czech lancúch.^[8][10] For the senses of land measure, Ciorănescu and the DLR compare Romanian lan and the Serbo-Croatian word.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the Acts of the Apostles: „Și dzise se-lu leage cu doao lanțure de fier” “and he ordered him to be bound with two chains of iron” (Acts 21:33).^[4][3][5] The word there means the iron chain that binds a prisoner.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word most often means the chains of a prisoner, and so fetters in general.^[3] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses lanțuri to render Slavonic words for “bonds”.^[3][11] The 1688 Bible also uses it for the gold chain worn as an ornament, as in the chain Pharaoh puts on Joseph's neck (Genesis 41:42).^[12] From the chains of captivity came the figurative sense of bondage and servitude.^[2][9]

A second line of meaning is “row, series”: lanț de munți “mountain range”, un lanț de evenimente “a chain of events”, and the phrase a se ține lanț “to follow one after another”.^[9][6][3] The DLR compares French chaîne for this sense.^[3] The word also named a land surveyor's chain and an old measure of length, of about 19.67 metres in Muntenia and 22.30 metres in Moldavia; in Transylvania it was a measure of area of roughly a pogon.^[2][4] Modern uses include the chemical chain of atoms and reacție în lanț “chain reaction”.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – lanțure “chains” of a prisoner in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[4][5]
• 1649 – lanț and lanțuri in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – lanțul “the (gold) chain” and lanțuri in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1939 – Scriban records the old land measure and the senses “row” and “bondage”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A chain of metal links or plates joined one to another, used to bind, hang or pull something or to pass on motion.^[6][5][1]
2. A surveyor's chain for measuring land; formerly also a measure of length and of area.^[6][2]
3. A small chain, often of precious metal, worn as an ornament on the wrist or neck.^[6]
4. (chiefly in the plural) fetters, handcuffs, and (figuratively) whatever takes away someone's freedom.^[5][6]
5. A continuous series of similar things or beings: lanț de munți “mountain range”, reacție în lanț “chain reaction”, a se ține lanț “to follow one after another”.^[6][14]
6. (chemistry) A chain of atoms bound to each other; catenă.^[6]

Word family

• lănțug
• lănțui
• înlănțui
• lănteț
• lănțișor

Usage notes

The plural is lanțuri; the 16th-century texts have lanțure.^[3][5] A masculine lanț, plural lanți, meaning “lath”, recorded in Muntenia, Oltenia and Dobruja, is a variant of laț, not this word.^[3][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. lanț
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lanț
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. lanț
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1310
6. ^ 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. 1, 576
7. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 308
8. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 714
9. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 727
10. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu, p. s.v. lánc
11. ^ 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. lanțuri
12. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 41:42
13. ^ 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. lanț
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. lanț
15. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 228