litru

Forms

litru m (plural litri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French litre.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DN also names Italian litro.^[6]

The French word was made with the other metric terms of the Revolution and fixed by law in 1795, replacing the old measure litron, from which DHLF derives it.^[7] The older word comes from Medieval Latin litra (“a measure for liquids”), borrowed from the Ancient Greek λίτρα (lítra, “a pound of twelve ounces”) of Sicilian Greek, which corresponds to Latin lībra.^[7] Wiktionary takes the French word straight from the Medieval Latin one.^[1] Scriban called it a word formed by scholars from the Greek.^[8]

Graur notes that the same Greek word reached Romanian through Modern Greek as litră; the loan from French is its etymological doublet.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1841.^[4] MDA2 and the DLR take their first record from Heliade's translation of Francoeur's arithmetic, which they leave undated: „Cubul al căruia latură este a zecea parte din metru este unime de trup şi se numeşte litru” “the cube whose side is a tenth of the metre is the unit of volume and is called a litre”.^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the metric system: Costinescu in 1870 calls it a new measure of capacity, and Laurian and Massim describe it as the unit of the French measures for dry goods and liquids.^[10][11] The DLR quotes an early comparison with the old measure: „Litru = 0,630 oca”.^[5]

By metonymy it names a vessel holding a litre and the liquid in it;^[12][3] CADE gives a bottle of a litre and the drink it holds, a bea un litru “to drink a litre”.^[12][3] Stati records a Moldovan regional sense, a glass carafe of two to two and a half litres.^[13] The plural is litri;^[4][5][2] Tiktin and the DLR also record an older neuter plural litruri, and MDA2 the regional variants litără, lităr, liter and litră.^[4][5][2]

Timeline

• 1841 – Tiktin's first record.^[4]
• 1870 – “a new measure of capacity” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10]
• 1871–1876 – Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[11]
• 1886 – the multiples decalitru and hectolitru in Barcianu's dictionary.^[14]
• 1931 – “a litre bottle” and “the drink in it” in CADE.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A litre: the unit of capacity equal to the volume of one kilogram of pure water at four degrees Celsius and normal pressure.^[3][2]
2. A vessel that holds a litre.^[3]
3. A quantity of liquid, especially wine, of one litre.^[3][12]
4. (regional, Moldova) A glass carafe of two to two and a half litres.^[13]

Related words

• litră
• mililitru
• decilitru
• hectolitru

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1380
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 596
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. litru
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. litru
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 752
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 53
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 43
11. ^ a b Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871–1876), Dictionariulu limbei romane, 2 vols., Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. litru
12. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. litru
13. ^ a b Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 166
14. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 353