pictură

Forms

pictură f (plural picturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is a learned borrowed from Latin pictūra (“painting”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} Ciorănescu treats it instead as a formation modelled on Italian pittura, within the family of the verb picta.^[6] The Latin noun is formed on pingō (“to paint”) with the suffix -tūra.^[1][7]

Its closest relatives in Romanian are pictor “painter”, which Ciorănescu takes from pictor, and pictural, from French pictural.^[6][8] Ciorănescu also notes that the verb is a doublet of the inherited păta.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Gheorghe Șincai's chronicle, about 1812.^[4] MDA2 dates it from Ioan Bobb's Romanian–Latin–Hungarian dictionary of 1822.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the art of painting and a single painted work, the two senses Tiktin already gives with German Malerei and Gemälde.^[4][2] From the second sense came the collective one, the whole body of works of a country, a period or a school, and the work of one painter.^[3][9]

Already Scriban and Șăineanu record a figurative sense, a vivid description of people and scenes in a literary work.^[5][10] MDA2 lists pânză “canvas” and tablou among its synonyms, and the old word zugrăvire for the art.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1812 – pictură “painting” in Șincai's chronicle, the first record.^[4]
• 1822 – recorded in Bobb's dictionary.^[3]
• 1929 – Șăineanu lists the figurative sense “vivid description”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. painting: the branch of the visual arts that renders reality in coloured forms on a flat surface.^[2][3]
2. A painted work; a picture, a canvas: o pictură în ulei “an oil painting”.^[2][11]
3. The works, styles and techniques of the painters of a country, a period or a school: pictura italiană a Renașterii “Italian Renaissance painting”.^[2][3]
4. (figurative) A vivid description of characters, scenes or nature in a literary work.^[2][5]

Related words

• pictor
• picta
• pictural
• Latin pictūra

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 814
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 371
4. ^ 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. pictură
5. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 977
6. ^ a b c 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. picta
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pictural
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 790
10. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 480
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 409