părângă

Forms

părângă f (plural părângi)^[1] Variants include parângă, parâncă, părunghe and a masculine părâng.^[2] Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada has the masculine: „Le era de un părâng aninată” “it hung from a pole for them”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin palanga (“carrying pole”), the popular form of phalanga, which is from Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx, “log, roller, beam”).^{[4][5][2][6][3][1]} Latin had the word in the plural for the poles on which loads were carried and for wooden rollers.^[7][8] Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, the REW, Rohlfs and Rosetti for this Latin source.^[4][9][10] Wiktionary reconstructs the Latin form as *palanga;^[1] Romanian palancă and falangă are its doublets.^[1]

Its Romance cognates include Italian palanca, Spanish palanca and French palanche.^[4][11] Ciorănescu thinks a derivation from a Slavonic word for “stake”, proposed by Byhan, unlikely, and compares Hungarian porong.^[4] Șăineanu took the word from that Hungarian form.^[12] The mountain name Parâng is the same word, according to Ciorănescu.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1470, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[6] The 1688 Bucharest Bible has the plural five times, in Exodus 30:4–5, 1 Chronicles 15:15 and 2 Chronicles 5:8–9.^[13] DLR quotes „Vei face părângi de leamne neputrede” “you shall make poles of wood that does not rot”.^[3][2] In 1 Chronicles the sons of the Levites carry the ark of God on their shoulders „întru părângi” “with the poles”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a pole carried on the shoulders of two people with a load hanging between them.^[3][2] From it comes the adverbial phrase în părângă “carried on a pole between two people”, used with verbs of carrying; it also describes a load on one person's shoulder, half hanging on the chest and half on the back.^[3][2] Sadoveanu's hunters carry wild boars în părângă.^[3]

MDA2 records a children's game, legat în părângă, in which one child is tied to a pole and carried by two others, and the idiom a se pune în părângă cu cineva “to stand up to someone, to measure one's strength against someone”.^[2] Regionally the word also means a crowbar, a stretcher and a part of the loom.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1470 – first record, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[6]
• 1688 – părângi “carrying poles” in the Bucharest Bible.^[13][2]
• 1939 – Scriban records a measure of goods carried at once on a pole: trei părângi de ceapă.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated or regional) A pole or rod; specifically a bar on which two people carry a load on their shoulders; compare dorângă.^[5][2][1]
2. (in the phrase în părângă or de-a părânga) Carried on a pole on the shoulders of two people, or on one person's shoulder: Au dus ciubărul în părângă până la cramă.^[5][2]
3. (regional) A crowbar; a stretcher.^[2]
4. (regional) A part of the loom.^[14]

Related words

• palancă
• falangă
• Ancient Greek φάλαγξ (phálanx)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 304
3. ^ 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. părîngă
4. ^ a b c d e 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. parîngă
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 789
6. ^ 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. părângă
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 111
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6455
11. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 952
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 462
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Chr 15:15
14. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 358