plan

Forms

plan n (plural planuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French plan, according to Ciorănescu and Wiktionary.^[2][1] DEX names French and Latin, and DLR and MDA2 give French, Latin plānus (“flat, level”) and German Plan together, the multiple etymology of Romanian lexicography.^[3][4][5] Tiktin gives the same three sources.^[6]

The French noun “ground plan, plan” is explained in two ways: from the Latin adjective, or from an earlier French plant, a derivative of planter.^[1] Kluge traces it to Latin planta (“sole of the foot”), and Scriban also starts from the French verb.^[7][8] The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *pl̥h₂-nós (“flattened”).^[1][9]

Gáldi, discussing the word in the sense “system, plan” in Klein's dictionary of 1801, finds a German source most likely, though Latin plānum or Hungarian plánom are possible.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1785.^[6] MDA2 and DLR open with an undated text where planul zidirii is “the plan of the building”.^[5][4] The early sense is the drawing of a building, an estate or a canal: a history of Charles XII says that he alone made the plan to join the streams by canals.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the drawing of a building or an estate (a ridica planul unei moșii “to survey an estate”) the word passed to the outline of a literary work and to a scheme or project.^[6][8] Beldiman has the Greeks “making plans” to strike Turkey, and Pann's Nastratin Hogea makes a plan to enter by the chimney.^[6]

Geometry and painting gave the senses “plane” and “level of depth in a view”: planul întâi is the foreground, and pe al doilea plan “in the background” means of secondary importance.^[6][3] Tiktin and MDA2 record an old sense “storey of a building”, as in an old palace with four planuri.^[6][5] Regionally a plan is a plot of land given to peasants under a land consolidation, or a field.^[11][5] In the planned economy it named the state's production plan, and in film it names a shot.^[12][3]

Timeline

• 1785 – first record.^[6]
• 1801 – plan “system, plan” in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda: “system, plan, draft”.^[13]
• 1848 – a plan proposed for all the Saxon districts.^[4]
• 1852 – plan topografic “topographic survey”.^[4]
• 1870 – Costinescu has both the adjective “flat, level” and the noun.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plan: a project worked out in advance, an ordered series of operations to reach a goal; a work programme.^[3]
2. The arrangement of the parts of a scholarly or literary work; an outline.^[3][5]
3. (geometry) A plane: a surface that wholly contains every straight line through any two of its points;^[3] plan înclinat an inclined plane.^[3]
4. Each of the levels of depth in a view or a picture;^[3] prim(ul) plan the foreground, figuratively the first place;^[3] pe planul... in the field of.^[3]
5. (cinema) A shot;^[3] prim-plan a close-up.^[3]
6. A technical drawing of a piece of land, a building or a machine, to scale.^[3][5]
7. (regional) A plot of land, a field.^[3][11]

Word family

• plănui
• plănuială

Usage notes

DEX and MDA2 treat the adjective plan, plană (plural plani, plane) “flat, level, without unevenness” as the same word, with the same French and Latin origin;^[3][5][12] DLRLC lists it as a separate headword.^[3][5][12] Its phrases include geometrie plană “plane geometry” and unghi plan “plane angle”.^[3] The noun's plural is planuri;^[5][12] plane is rarer.^[5][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. plan
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 826
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plan
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 403
6. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plan
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 709
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 991
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 202
11. ^ a b Densusianu, Ovid (1915), Graiul din Țara Hațegului, București: Socec, p. 329
12. ^ a b c d e Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 448
13. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 510
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 303