linie

Forms

linie f (plural linii)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin līnea (“linen thread, line”), together with borrowed from Italian linea, borrowed in the 18th century.^[2][1] MDA2 and the DLR add German Linie and French ligne; the DLR says French gave some senses and phrases.^[3][4] Wiktionary dates the German and French models to the 19th and 20th centuries.^[1] The Latin word is the feminine of līneus (“of flax”), from līnum (“flax”).^[1]

The same Latin word was inherited as ie (“peasant blouse”), so the two are doublets.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Nicolae Costin's chronicle, about 1710, in a military sense: „Din pedestrimea Moscului, numai o linie ... care cu neprietenul război au arătat” “of the Muscovite infantry, only one line ... that gave battle to the enemy”.^[5] MDA2's date of 1886 is that of the Conachi edition it cites.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin also records the sense “line of descent” from an 18th-century text: a prince was to be chosen „din leniea și neamul domnesc” “from the princely line and family”.^[5] The geometric line enters with the school books, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gives both “stroke” and “ruler”.^[4][6] In the 19th century the word served as an old measure of length: a tenth of a deget in Wallachia, a fraction of a palmac in Moldavia.^[2][5] The railway, transport and telegraph lines followed in the modern period.^[7][8] A ruler was also used to strike schoolchildren on the palm.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1710 – linie “line of troops” in Nicolae Costin.^[5]
• 1825 – “stroke” and “ruler” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[6]
• 1834 – linia meridiană “the meridian line”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A line, a continuous stroke drawn on a surface; in mathematics, the path of a moving point.^[9][10][1]
2. A real or imaginary line showing a limit or direction;^[9] linie de plutire “waterline”.^[9]
3. A ruler.^[9][2]
4. A former unit of length, a tenth of a deget.^[9][2]
5. A row;^[9] în linie “in a straight row”; a line of words on a page.^[9]
6. lineage, line of descent.^[9][8]
7. (military) A line of fortifications; a battle line.^[9][8]
8. A railway track; a transport, telephone or telegraph line.^[8][2]
9. (chess) A rank.^[1]

Word family

• liniuță
• linia
• alinia
• sublinia

Related words

• ie
• Latin līnea

Usage notes

An older word linie, stressed liníe, meant “calm, stillness”; it is formed on lin “gentle, calm” with -ie and occurs in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581 (linie sufletească “peace of soul”).^[3][4][5] Colloquial speech has lenie.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. linie
3. ^ 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, 1373
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. linie
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. linie
6. ^ 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. 354
7. ^ 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. linie
8. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. linie
9. ^ 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. 593
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. linie