metru

Forms

metru m (plural metri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French mètre and, at the same time, borrowed from Latin metrum (“poetic metre”), as DEX and DILF give it.^[2][3] Tiktin and Wiktionary name French alone, and DN compares Ancient Greek μέτρον (métron, “measure”).^[4][1][5] MDA2 adds Hungarian méter and German Meter, the sources of the regional forms ⟨metăr⟩, ⟨meter⟩ and ⟨metâr⟩ according to the DLR.^[6][7]

The unit takes its name from French: the French word was proposed in 1790 as the name of the basic unit of length in the measuring system set by the French National Assembly, from the same Greek word.^[8] German took it over with the unit fixed in 1795.^[9] The verse sense goes back to the Latin word, a technical loan from Greek, which French borrowed at the end of the 12th century.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Budai-Deleanu, dated 1800.^[4] The first quotation in the DLR is from Heliade's translation of Francoeur's arithmetic, which defines the metre as one ten-millionth of the arc of the Paris meridian from the pole to the equator.^[7][6] Negulici's dictionary of 1848 calls it a French measure of length, a little more than half a stânjen.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word covers two senses that Romanian took at about the same time: the unit of length of the metric system, with the rod or tape that measures it, and the metre of verse.^[7][13] Heliade already wrote of the metres of Romanian folk songs, and the verse sense later spread to music, as the order of strong and weak beats.^[7][2] Costinescu in 1870 still called the verse sense an old word for “verse, poetry”.^[14]

Regional uses grew out of the unit: a piece of firewood about a metre long and a stack of wood of about a cubic metre.^[2][15] In Transylvania metăr named a length equal to a cubit, and elsewhere a measure of capacity or weight that ranged from 15 to 100 kilograms.^[6] In prison slang a metru is a year of detention.^[16]

Timeline

• 1800 – the first record, in Budai-Deleanu.^[4]
• 1830 – a text cited by the DLR converts 6,000 metres into 5,806 stânjeni.^[7]
• 1848 – Negulici: a French measure of length.^[12]
• 1870 – Costinescu: the new French measure, divided into decimetres, centimetres and millimetres.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. metre: the basic unit of length in the metric system: Casa e la trei sute de metri.^[2][1]
2. A ruler or measuring tape one metre long, divided into centimetres and millimetres; also a log of firewood about a metre long, or a stack of firewood of about a cubic metre.^[2]
3. (prosody) A group of syllables that makes up the unit of measure of a verse; the rhythm given by this division.^[2][13]
4. (music) The order of the beats, set by strong and weak accents; the organisation of rhythm; cadence.^[2]

Related words

• centimetru
• kilometru
• milimetru

Usage notes

The plural is metri;^[1] metre and metruri are rare and old.^[7][6] Metru pătrat is a square metre and metru cub a cubic metre.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 647
3. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. metru
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. metru
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. metru
6. ^ 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, 1500
7. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. metru
8. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
9. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 618
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ 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. metru
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 68
14. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 94
15. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 262
16. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. metru