placă

Forms

placă f (plural plăci)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French plaque, as MDA2, Tiktin, DEX and the neologism dictionaries give it.^[2][3][4][5] MDA2 compares German Platte, and the DN compares Italian placca.^[2][5]

Ciorănescu, after Miklosich, Cihac and Graur, takes Modern Greek as the first source, πλάκα (pláka), and sees French as a later reinforcement.^[6] Scriban separates the schoolchildren's slate, which he takes from Greek, from the plate of metal or wood, which he takes from French, and Șăineanu gives Modern Greek alone.^[7][8] The Greek word continues Ancient Greek πλάξ (pláx, “flat surface, plate”).^[9] The French word goes back to Middle Dutch placke (“patch, disc”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1839.^[3] MDA2 first finds it in Stamati's dictionary of technical words of 1851.^[2] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 already gives a plate of metal, the guard of a sword hilt and the badge of an order.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a flat piece of a material whose thickness is small beside its other dimensions, specified by the material: metal, wood, glass, stone.^[4][2] Technical phrases followed: placă fotografică “photographic plate”, placă aglomerată “particle board” and placă turnantă “turntable”, the last used figuratively for a hub of routes or interests from the 1980s.^[4][11] From the gramophone disc came the colloquial phrase a schimba placa “to change the subject”.^[4][12] The slate on which beginners learned to write is now dated.^[4][1]

In Maramureș the subjunctive placă of plăcea served as a polite formula, “please”; soldiers from the Old Kingdom mocked it after 1918 and it receded.^[13]

Timeline

• 1839 – the first record, according to Tiktin.^[3]
• 1851 – placă in Stamati's dictionary of technical words.^[2]
• 1870 – a plate of metal, a sword guard and the badge of an order in Costinescu.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A flat piece of material of even, small thickness; a plate, slab or panel: placă fotografică, placă aglomerată, placă turnantă.^[4][2]
2. A gramophone record, a disc;^[1] a schimba placa “to change the subject or one's attitude”.^[4][1]
3. (dated) A slate on which beginners learned to write.^[4][7]
4. (printing) A metal plate from which letters are printed.^[4]
5. (medicine) A removable dental plate, placă dentară.^[4]
6. placă funerară: a plaque fixed on a gravestone with the name and dates of the dead.^[4]

Word family

• plăcuță

Related words

• Modern Greek πλάκα (pláka)
• French plaque

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 402
3. ^ 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. placă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 825
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. placă
6. ^ 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. placă
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 991
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 485
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 299
11. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. placă
12. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. placă
13. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. placă