rână

Forms

rână f (plural râne)^[1] Regional variants are râlă in Moldavia, râgă, and râmnă and râznă in Transylvania.^[2][3][4] Creangă writes râlă: „se pune într-o râlă jos lângă foc” “he lies down on his side by the fire”.^[5]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin rēn (“kidney”), through a form *rēna made on the plural rēnēs (“kidneys, loins”).^[4][6][2][1] The sense passed from the kidneys to the region of the loins and then to the side of the body.^[2] The REW lists the Romanian word and its variant râlă among the descendants of the Latin word, beside Italian rene, French rein, Spanish rene and Portuguese rim.^[7][4]

Ciorănescu finds the other proposals insufficient: Cihac's Old Church Slavonic роуно (runo, “fleece”) (with Polish rynna (“gutter”) for the Moldavian variant), and Giuglea's Vulgar Latin *olana (“elbow”) beside Latin ulna (“forearm”) and Albanian ljërë.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1703.^[2] MDA2's first record is Damé's dictionary of 1893.^[3] An early quotation in DLR, from Gorjan, has the phrase într-o rână: „mă dedeiu într-o rână la umbra altui copaciu” “I lay down on my side in the shade of another tree”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The noun lives mostly in the phrase într-o rână or pe o rână, of a person lying or leaning on one side, propped on an elbow, and of an animal lying on its side.^[5][3][6] Of things the phrase means tilted, askew: a tumbledown cottage in a story quoted by Tiktin stands „lăsată într-o râlă” “sagging to one side”.^[2][6] In southern Transylvania the plural râne keeps a sense close to the Latin: the muscles of the loins, as in mă dor rânele “my back hurts”.^[5][3]

Timeline

• 1703 – first record.^[2]
• 1893 – rână in Damé's dictionary, MDA2's first record.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Each of the two sides of the human body; coastă, șold.^[6][3]
2. (in într-o rână, pe o rână) Lying or leaning on one side; of things, tilted, crooked.^[6][3][5]
3. (regional, southern Transylvania; in the plural) The muscles of the loins; șale.^[3][5]

Related words

• rinichi
• Latin rēn

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rână
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 656
4. ^ a b c d 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. rână
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rână
6. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 922
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter