lat

Forms

lat m or n (feminine singular lată, masculine plural lați, feminine/neuter plural late)^[1] As a noun, lat “width, the flat part” is neuter, with the plural laturi.^[2][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lātus (“wide, broad”).^{[3][4][2][5][1][6]} It survives in Aromanian lat.^[7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian lato, French lé and Occitan lat.^[9] The Latin adjective had an older form stlātus, and its further origin is uncertain.^[1][10]

Ciorănescu takes the noun senses “width” and “the flat part” as uses of the adjective, while Wiktionary derives the noun from the Latin noun for “side”.^[3][1] For the plural sense “shirt front”, Bogrea and the DA proposed German Latz, but Ciorănescu sees in it the sense “width of cloth”, comparing French largeur.^[3] The adjective is a synonym and competitor of larg.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1505.^[5] MDA2 dates the word from Varlaam's Cazania of 1643.^[4] A text of about 1660–1680 says of a stone bridge „ș-au fost de lat că au putut îmbla 2 care alăturea” “and it was so wide that two carts could go side by side”.^[11]

Semantic evolution

Beside “wide”, the adjective came to mean “flat, shallow”, as in farfurie lată “a flat plate”.^[5] Vorbe late are pompous, high-flown words.^[5][2] Said of a person, lat means “laid out flat”, unconscious or dead, hence a lăsa pe cineva lat “to knock someone out” or “to astound someone” and lat de foame “faint with hunger”.^[2][5] A o face lată is “to go on a spree” or “to make a blunder”, and e lată “things look bad”.^[2][5] As a noun the word means the width or flat part of something: the Bible of 1688 has „în lungul lui și în lat” “in its length and in its breadth”, and latul sabiei is the flat of the sword.^[5] In Maramureș the masculine lat is a width of cloth as woven on the loom, used as a measure.^[12][3]

Timeline

• 1505 – a Slavonic–Romanian document, the first record.^[5]
• 1643 – in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4]
• c. 1660-1680 – „ș-au fost de lat” of a stone bridge.^[11]
• 1688 – „și în lungul lui și în lat” in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. wide, broad: having a great width;^[2][4][1] lat în spate broad-shouldered, sturdy.^[2][4][1]
2. flat, shallow: o farfurie lată.^[5]
3. (colloquial) Lying flat on the ground, unconscious or dead;^[2] a lăsa pe cineva lat to beat someone senseless, or to astound them.^[2]
4. vorbe mari și late pompous, empty words;^[2] (colloquial) a o face lată to go on a wild spree, or to make a blunder;^[2] e lată the situation is serious.^[2]

Noun

1. The wide or flat part of an object; width: latul sabiei the flat of the sword;^[2][5] un lat de palmă a handbreadth;^[2][5] de-a latul crosswise.^[2][5]
2. (regional, Maramureș; masculine, plural lați) A width of cloth as woven on the loom, used as a measure for textiles.^[12]

Word family

• lăți
• lățime
• lătăreț
• lățiș
• lățișor

Related words

• latură
• Aromanian lat

Usage notes

A separate regional noun lat or leat “lath” comes from German Latte and Hungarian léc.^[13][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 578
3. ^ a b c d e 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. lat
4. ^ 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, 1314
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lat
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 82
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 616
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 106
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4935
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lat
12. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. lat
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească", București: Cartea Românească, p. 698
14. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 166