latură

Forms

latură f (plural laturi)^[1] The variant lature is common in the old texts: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Cădea-va den laturea ta o mie” “a thousand shall fall at your side” (Psalm 90:7).^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[4][1] According to DEX, NODEX and MDA2 it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *latora (“sides”), a variant of Latin latera, the plural of latus (“side, flank”).^[3][5][6] Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu, the REW and Tiktin also started from the Latin plural, which Wiktionary compares with Old Italian latora.^[4][1]

Ciorănescu prefers a singular rebuilt in Romanian from ⟨laturi⟩, the plural of the old noun lat “side”, as fagure and gaură were rebuilt; he allows the Latin plural as another possibility.^[4][1] Ascoli and Scriban thought of the Latin oblique stem ⟨later-⟩, which Ciorănescu finds less likely.^[4] De Vaan finds no good etymology for the Latin noun.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural laturile is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 90:7, “a thousand shall fall at your side”.^[8][2] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2 cites Miron Costin.^[2][6] The sense was “side”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu notes that the plural laturi came to mean “sides, parts”, while the plural lături survives almost only in fixed phrases: în lături “aside”, pe de lături “alongside; indirectly”, and the adverb alături “beside”.^[4] The old language used it for a region or province, and cei de laturi for relatives in the collateral line.^[4][2] A bate laturile meant “to roam as a fugitive”.^[3][2]

Modern Romanian added the abstract sense “aspect” and the geometric “side of a polygon, arm of an angle”.^[3][2] Its derivatives include the verbs alătura “to put side by side” and înlătura “to remove”, and the adjective lăturalnic “lateral, indirect”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – laturile “the sides” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8]
• c. 1573-1578 – lature in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[9][2]
• 1649 – laturi in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – laturea in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A side, the edge of an object; each of the two sides of the body, at the ribs.^[3][6][1]
2. A part or direction, and (old and popular) a border area of a land.^[3]
3. An aspect under which a thing can be seen or analysed.^[3][1]
4. (geometry) A side of a polygon, or one of the rays that form an angle.^[3][5]

Word family

• lăturalnic
• lăturean
• lăturaș
• alătura
• înlătura

Related words

• alături
• lat
• Latin latus

Usage notes

The plural is laturi, and lături in set phrases: în lături “aside”, pe lături “here and there”, pe de lături “alongside; in a roundabout way”, and a (nu) se da în lături “(not) to shrink from doing something”.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. latură
3. ^ 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. 578
4. ^ 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. latură
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. latură
6. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1315
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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 90:7
9. ^ 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 127:3
10. ^ 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. laturi