oțel

Forms

oțel n (plural oțeluri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic оцѣль (ocělĭ, “steel”), a word of the Slavonic of the church and the chancery.^{[2][3][4][1][5][6]} Ciorănescu follows Miklosich, Cihac and the REW, and compares Serbo-Croatian ocal, Czech ocel and the Slovene word, and Hungarian acél.^[2] Miklosich's Old Church Slavonic lexicon lists the same word in Slovene, Serbian, Czech, Hungarian and Greek.^[7]

The Slavic word goes back to Late Latin aciale or aciarium, from Latin aciēs (“sharp edge”).^[1][8] Older Romanian dictionaries name a Romance intermediary: Șăineanu names Italian acciale, Scriban Venetian azzale.^[9][10] For the Hungarian word, also from Slavic, the ÚESz and Zaicz mention Old High German echil as a possible source of the Slavic forms.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1436, in the Slavonic–Romanian charters.^[5] In a Romanian text it appears in a document from before 1588 published by Hasdeu, which mentions bucși de fântână de oțel, bushings of steel for a fountain.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “steel” has stayed constant since the first records: a text of about 1660–1680 counts it among the metals that people work, beside lead and iron.^[6] Budai-Deleanu writes the form oțăl, which Gaster's chrestomathy also has.^[6][13]

Steel gave the word for the flintlock of old guns, the cock with its flint and steel: Tiktin and Șăineanu record the plural oțele in this sense, and then for the gun itself, as in Alecsandri's pune mâna pe oțele “take up arms”.^[5][9][14] In some regions oțele is the fire steel used to strike sparks.^[4] Figurative uses describe strength and hardness, as in braț de oțel “an arm of steel”.^[10][14] The word is also a surname, Oțel, and the source of Oțelea.^[15]

Timeline

• 1436 – a record in the Slavonic–Romanian charters.^[5]
• before 1588 – bucși de fântână de oțel in a document published by Hasdeu, the first record in a Romanian text.^[6][4]
• c. 1660–1680 – listed among the metals with lead and iron.^[6]
• 1783 – columns of oțel de China “Chinese steel” in a text quoted by DLR.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. steel: an alloy of iron with carbon and other elements, valued for its strength, hardness and elasticity;^[3][4][1] de oțel “like steel”, in hardness, strength or colour.^[3][4][1]
2. (in the plural oțeluri) Various grades of steel; by extension, objects made of steel;^[3][4] (rare) tacks with a broad shiny head.^[3][4]
3. (obsolete, in the plural oțele) The firing mechanism of old guns, made of the cock, the flint and the steel; by extension, a gun or pistol.^[3][4]

Word family

• oțeli
• oțelărie
• oțelos

Related words

• Old Church Slavonic оцѣль (ocělĭ)
• Hungarian acél

Usage notes

The plural depends on the sense: oțeluri for grades of steel and steel objects, oțele for the old gunlock.^[3] The expression a fi iute (sau slab) de oțele, literally “to be quick (or weak) of gunlock”, means to be quick-tempered (or weak-willed).^[3][4] A popular expression, a-i tăia gura în fier și în oțel, means to talk much and to no purpose.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. oțel
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 757
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 238
5. ^ 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. oțel
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. oțel
7. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller, p. s.v. оцѣль
8. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 93
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 451
10. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 917
11. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
12. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
13. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec, p. s.v. oțel
14. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. oțel
15. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. oțel