plută

Forms

plută f (plural plute)^[1] A regional variant pliută is recorded for the senses “poplar” and “cork”, and MDA2 also has pliucă and a regional plural pluți.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a Slavic word, though the dictionaries do not agree on the exact source.^[4][5] DEX gives the raft as borrowed from Bulgarian плута (pluta) and the poplar and cork as borrowed from Serbo-Croatian plut.^[5] MDA2 names плюто (pljuto) and Serbo-Croatian pluta or pluto for both senses, and the DLR the same Bulgarian form for the tree.^[3][6] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary records the Bulgarian word, stressed ⟨плу̀та⟩, as “cork; float of a fishing net; raft”, and says, after Rosetti, that Romanian took the word from Bulgarian with the senses “raft; cork; float of an icon lamp; poplar”.^[7]

Ciorănescu leaves two possibilities: a deverbal noun from Romanian pluti (“to float”), or a borrowing from Slavic, comparing the Bulgarian word, Serbo-Croatian plutva, Czech plt and Russian плот (plot, “raft”).^[4] Tiktin, too, puts it with Old Church Slavonic плоути (pluti, “to swim, float”).^[2] BER traces the Bulgarian noun to Proto-Slavic *plutā, formed with a suffix on the stem of *pluti (“to swim, sail”).^[7][8] The Slavic verb is cognate with Lithuanian pláuti (“to wash”), Ancient Greek πλέω (pléō, “to sail”) and Latin pluit (“it rains”).^[9][8]

The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 derived the word from Latin pluteus (“a shelter of boards”), a view of its time.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1638, in a document of the Documenta Romaniae Historica.^[2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 uses it for rafts of timber: „le vom aduce pre iale plute pre marea Iopii” “we will bring them in rafts by sea to Joppa” (2 Chronicles 2:16).^[2][11] MDA2 dates the raft to Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686), and the tree and cork to Budai-Deleanu's lexicon (about 1818).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word covers a raft of tree trunks floating down a river, cork and things made of it, and kinds of poplar.^[2][3] Scriban explains the raft as the first kind of river boat, made of beams joined together, and describes the rafts of fir that came down the Siret to Galați.^[12] Floating gave the fishing float tied to a line, the cork that holds the wick of an icon lamp, and the bundle of flax or hemp laid in water to ret.^[5][2] Regional speech uses it for water lilies, Nymphaea alba and Nuphar luteum, for a fenced place in a river where hemp is retted (Moldova), and for the layer that floats on fermenting plums (Muntenia).^{[3][13][14][15]}

The tree sense, mainly the pyramidal and the white poplar, is regional in origin, from Muntenia; the DLR has it from 1871 on, with quotations from Delavrancea, Macedonski and Arghezi.^[2][6] The swimming phrase a face pluta “to float on one's back” and the rare a cădea de-a pluta “to fall flat on the ground” come from the raft.^[5][16]

Timeline

• 1638 – the first record, in a document.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – “raft” in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[3]
• 1688 – plute “rafts” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2][11]
• c. 1818 – the poplar and cork senses in Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[3]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin ratis “raft”.^[10]
• 1870 – Costinescu has both the floated timber and dop de plută “cork stopper”.^[17]
• 1871 – plute gigantice “giant poplars” in a periodical.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A raft of tree trunks fastened together to carry logs down a river.^[5][3]
2. A floating wooden platform used for rescue on water;^[5] plută-far a large one with a beacon and fog signals.^[5]
3. A kind of poplar with branches from near the base and a tall, narrow crown (Populus pyramidalis); regionally other poplars.^[5][3]
4. cork: the light, elastic, waterproof outer bark of certain oaks, used for stoppers, lifebuoys and insulation; suber.^[5][3]
5. (rare) A cork stopper.^[5]
6. A float tied to a fishing line; also the small piece of light wood that holds the wick of an icon lamp.^[5][12]

Related words

• pluti
• plutaș
• plutitor

Usage notes

DEX splits the word into two headwords, plută¹ “raft” from Bulgarian and plută² “poplar; cork” from Serbo-Croatian, and DLR too has two entries.^[5][6] MDA2 and BER, however, give the same Slavic source for both, and Tiktin and Ciorănescu treat them as one word with the verb pluti.^[3][7][2][4] Set phrases: a face pluta “to float on one's back”, (rare) a cădea de-a pluta “to fall full length”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plută
3. ^ 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, 429
4. ^ 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. pluti
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 836
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plută
7. ^ a b c Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 367
8. ^ a b Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
10. ^ a b 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. 516
11. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1001
13. ^ Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 229
14. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 230
15. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 330
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 473
17. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 310