larg

Forms

larg m or n (feminine singular largă, plural largi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin largus (“abundant, generous; spacious”).^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} The Latin word meant above all “abundant, generous”; according to the DHLF it took over the physical sense of latus (“broad”) in Romance, helped by its pairing with longus (“long”).^[7][8] Its origin is unknown: the derivation from a root meaning “fat” is doubted by de Vaan.^[9][1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian largu, Megleno-Romanian largu and Istro-Romanian lǫrg.^[2][5][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian largo, French large, Occitan larc, Catalan llarg, Spanish largo and Portuguese largo, the last two meaning “long”.^[2][6] Ciorănescu also compares Albanian largë.^[2] He holds that the senses “ample, majestic”, “generous” and “the open sea” are literary borrowings from the French word.^[2] The verb lărgi is a Romanian derivative for him, while Pușcariu and Candrea and Densusianu derive it from Vulgar Latin *largiō.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name, Larga, in a charter of 1428.^[11] In Romanian the word appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[12] MDA2 dates it to the Psaltirea Scheiană, about 1573.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word described land, places and towns of great extent; the chronicles speak of armies fighting la loc larg, in open country.^[13][11] Tiktin notes that Romanian keeps larg for what extends in every direction, as opposed to lat “broad” in one direction.^[11] Of clothes it means “loose”, and a da cu mâneci largi “to give with wide sleeves” is to give gladly.^[4][11]

The figurative senses “generous” and “broad-minded” (vederi largi, mână largă) and the noun largul “the open sea” are recorded in DEX, and Ciorănescu takes them from French.^[4][2] A se simți la largul său means “to feel at ease”, and pe larg “in detail”.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1428 – Larga, a place name, the first record.^[11]
• early 16th century – larg in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• 1570 – larg in Coresi's Psalter.^[14]
• c. 1573 – larg in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• c. 1660 – larg in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – Cetatea e largă și mare “the city is wide and large” in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Extending far in every direction, vast;^[4][3] în lumea largă “far away, all over the world”.^[4][3]
2. Of large size, wide; of vessels and openings, roomy;^[4] pe larg “in detail”.^[4]
3. Of clothes: loose, cut generously or too big.^[4]
4. Of gestures: sweeping.^[4][11]
5. (figurative) Open-minded, generous: vederi largi, mână largă.^[4][2]

Noun

1. (articled) The whole extent of a place; the open sea: în larg “offshore”.^[4]
2. An open space stretching far;^[4] a se simți la largul său “to feel at ease”.^[4]

Word family

• lărgi
• lărgime
• lărgitor
• prelarg

Related words

• larghețe
• alerga
• Aromanian largu
• Latin largus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. larg
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, 1312
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 577
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 82
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4912
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. large
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 166
11. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. larg
12. ^ 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 17:22
13. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. larg
14. ^ 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 30:10
15. ^ 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. larg