membru

Forms

membru n (plural membre)^[1] The masculine plural membri is used for persons and the neuter plural membre for limbs; a rare neuter plural membruri also occurs.^[2][3] An old variant membron occurs in a 19th-century document: „Traiul celui de a fi primit de membron al Divanului cel mare” “the conduct of one to be received as a member of the great Divan”.^[4] The variant membro is Italian.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin membrum (“limb, member”), with French membre as a second model, as DEX, DLR and MDA2 give it, and MDA2 adds Italian membro.^[5][4][3] Wiktionary gives only French, Tiktin only New Latin and Italian.^[1][2] The old variant membro is from Italian.^[4]

The Latin word was not inherited in Romanian: the REW lists it in Italian, Sardinian, French, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese, among them Spanish miembro and Portuguese membro.^[6] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Italic *memsro- and Proto-Indo-European *mēms-ro- (“body part, fleshy part”), related to the words for “meat” in other Indo-European languages.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a document of 1774 published in the Uricariul: „cinstiții membri bisericești și mirenești” “the honourable members, clerical and lay”.^[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the members of a body or society, and older texts glossed it with the inherited mădular: „ale soțietății membruri (mădulări)” “the members of the society”.^[4] Negulici in 1848 defined it by the parts of the body, head, arms and legs.^[8] The two senses then split by gender: membri (masculine) for persons and membre (neuter) for limbs, as Tiktin and Barcianu record.^[2][9] Scriban and DN also record technical senses: a side of an equation and a part of a sentence or period.^[10][11] A feminine membră is used of women.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1774 – membri “members” in a document of the Uricariul.^[4][3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms, as a part of the body.^[8]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[12]
• 1872 – membri ai comitetului “members of the committee” in Negruzzi.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (neuter) A limb, an arm or leg of a person or an animal: membru superior “arm”, membru inferior “leg”.^[5][1]
2. (neuter) The penis.^[5]
3. (masculine and feminine) A member of a group or organization: membru al Academiei.^[5][1]
4. (masculine, mathematics) Each of the two sides of an equation, or each term of a ratio in a proportion.^[5]
5. (neuter, linguistics) Each of the parts of a clause, a sentence or a period.^[5]

Related words

• membrană
• mădular
• Latin membrum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. membru
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1485
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. membru
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 639
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5488
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 Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. membru
9. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 376
10. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. membru
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 796
12. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 431