lance

Forms

lance f (plural lănci)^[1] Old and regional variants include lență in Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686): „luă sfârșenie din lovitura unii lențe” “he met his end from the blow of a lance”.^[2][3] Langea and leancea (articled forms) occur in Cantacuzino: „cu langea în mână” “lance in hand”.^[2] The DA records a variant lange from Bukovina, and the Lexicon de la Buda (1825) has lancie beside lance.^[4][5] Besides the plural lănci, an old plural lance is found in Negruzzi: „rezămați pe lungile lor lance” “leaning on their long lances”.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian lancia,^[8][9][1] probably borrowed from Hungarian láncsa, the older form of lándzsa.^[4][10][11] The dictionaries disagree on the route.^[4] The DA took the word from Italian, perhaps through Hungarian, and only the Bukovina variant lange from Hungarian;^[6][12][4] Tiktin also held that it came from Italian indirectly.^[6][12][4] Tagliavini, after Hunfalvy, argued that it could only have come through Hungarian, and the REW says so too.^[4][11] Ciorănescu gives Italian through Hungarian or through Slavic, comparing Slovene lanča.^[13] MDA2 and the DLR list the Hungarian, Italian and Latin forms together.^[3][2]

The Hungarian word is itself from Italian, recorded from 1384 as lancha.^[14][15] The Italian word continues Latin lancea (“light spear, lance”),^[16] a foreign word in Latin: Varro called it Spanish, and the OLD and Nocentini consider it probably Celtic.^[17][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1645, in the Romanian translation of Herodotus, where a dream foretells a death by the lance.^[12][6] Dosoftei's metrical psalter has „lănci cumplite” “terrible lances”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The weapon is the first sense; by restriction the word also names its triangular metal head.^[2][3] In the 17th century the Lexicon Marsilianum glossed Latin lancea with the form lancsa.^[4] In Maramureș, Banat and other regions it came to mean a shepherd's staff with an iron point or a hook for catching sheep;^{[4][3][18][10]} Tamás thinks this sense developed in Romanian, perhaps helped by the peasant uprisings.^{[4][3][18][10]} A rare sense was a surgical instrument for the lacrimal fistula.^[3][19]

The derivative lăncier “lancer” is found in Negruzzi, Bălcescu and Zamfirescu.^[6][4] Ciorănescu and the DA take it from French lancier.^[13][6]

Timeline

• 1384 – lancha, the first record of the Hungarian word.^[14]
• 1645 – lance in the Romanian Herodotus.^[12]
• 17th century – lănci cumplite in Dosoftei's psalter.^[4]
• 1682–1686 – the variant lență in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[3][2]
• 1825 – lance or lancie “spear”, with Hungarian lántsa, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[5]
• 1869 – the equivalent of Hungarian lándsa, láncsa in Barițiu's dictionary.^[20]
• 1931 – “shepherd's staff” in Maramureș, in the CADE.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A lance or spear: an old weapon made of a long wooden shaft with a sharp metal point; suliță.^[8][3]
2. The triangular metal head of such a weapon.^[3][2]
3. (regional) A shepherd's staff with an iron point, or a long stick with a hook for catching sheep.^[3][13][18]
4. (obsolete, rare) A surgical instrument for operating on the lacrimal fistula.^[3][19]

Word family

• lăncier

Related words

• lansa
• lanțetă
• Italian lancia
• Hungarian lándzsa

Usage notes

A rupe o lance cu cineva means “to argue vigorously with someone”, after the jousting knights of the Middle Ages, and a pleca lancea “to lower the lance” means to give in, to admit defeat.^[21][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. lance
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1309
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 488
5. ^ a b 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. 342
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. lance
7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 721
8. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 576
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. lance
10. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. lance
11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4878
12. ^ 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. lance
13. ^ 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. lance
14. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 716
15. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
16. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
17. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
18. ^ a b c Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. lance
19. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 15
20. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 335
21. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 726