punte

Forms

punte f (plural punți)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pontem (“bridge”).^[2][3][4][1] DER cites Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the REW.^[2][5] De Vaan traces the Latin word, which also meant “plank”, to a Proto-Italic stem and a Proto-Indo-European word for “road”.^[6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian punte and Megleno-Romanian punti.^[2][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian ponte, French pont, Catalan pont, Spanish puente and Portuguese ponte.^[2][5] The Aromanian word means any bridge, but in Romanian the word narrowed to a footbridge, often a single tree trunk across a stream or ravine, while a bridge for carts is a pod.^[2][7] Wiktionary suggests that the narrowing came as the Slavic-derived word took over the general sense.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and the DLR date the first record to 1645, in a Romanian translation of Herodotus: „au numai o punte strâmtă di ies afară din baltă” “they have only a narrow footbridge to get out of the marsh”.^[8][9] MDA2's first record is the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense, a narrow bridge for people on foot, is still the main one.^[4][3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 compares a spear to „un lemn de punte” “a beam of a footbridge” (2 Samuel 23:21).^[9][10] From the plank laid across a gap the word came to name a workers' plank on scaffolding, the plate joining two railway carriages, a gangway to a quay and the drawbridge of a castle.^[4] A ship's deck, an electrical measuring bridge and the float holding a lamp wick are later technical senses.^[4] The rhyme luntre și punte “boat and footbridge” is a set phrase.^[4][8] DER records the old derivative puntaș “builder of footbridges”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1645 – punte “narrow footbridge” in a translation of Herodotus, the first record.^[8][9]
• 1688 – lemn de punte in the Bucharest Bible.^[3][10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A footbridge: a narrow bridge, often a plank or a beam, across a ditch, ravine or stream; also a plank or gangway for walking across a gap.^[4][3][1]
2. The deck of a ship.^[4]
3. (electricity) A measuring bridge circuit.^[4]
4. The float that holds the wick of an oil lamp.^[4]

Word family

• puntaș

Related words

• pod
• Aromanian punte
• Latin pōns

Usage notes

Punte de scăpare is a way out of a difficulty, and a se face luntre și punte means to do everything one can.^[4] Punte de hidrogen is the chemists' term for a hydrogen bond.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. punte
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 600
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. 898
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6649
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. pōns
7. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 894
8. ^ 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. punte
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. punte
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Samuel 23:21