rang

Forms

rang n (plural ranguri)^[1] Budai-Deleanu used a feminine rangă in a rhyme.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French rang (“rank”).^[1][3][4][5] Tiktin notes that it may also have come in indirectly, comparing German Rang and Italian rango;^[2][6] Gabinschi counts it a European loan of French origin, also borrowed through German and through Russian ранг (rang).^[2][6] The French word continues Old French renc, from Frankish *hring (“ring, circle”), from Proto-Germanic *hringaz (“ring, circle”); the Frankish word meant a circle of people gathered for a court or an assembly, and so came to mean a line of men and then an order of rank.^[7][6][5] Scriban compares Ring.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1793, in Ianache Văcărescu's history of the Ottoman emperors, where a man holds “the first rank” for his merit: „țânea rangul cel dintâi”.^[2][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named a place in the hierarchy of the boyars and of the state: an act of 1814 grants something to all the boyar ranks, and Bălcescu and Ghica write of the rank of agă.^[4] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 also gives it the sense of a row or file.^[9] This French sense, a row of soldiers, appears in Alecsandri's „Și-n rangurile rupte zbor glonții” “and the bullets fly into the broken ranks”, and is now obsolete.^[10][1] Set phrases name things of first quality (de rangul întâi, de prim rang), a box in the first tier above the stalls, and a first mortgage.^[1][10] Later technical senses are the class of a warship, the place of a term in a mathematical series, and in linguistics the place of a word or sound in a frequency list.^[11][12][3]

Timeline

• 1793 – first record, in Ianache Văcărescu's history of the Ottoman emperors.^[2]
• 1814 – the boyar ranks in an official act.^[4]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses “dignity, degree of honour” and “row, file”.^[9]
• 1929 – Șăineanu adds the rating of a warship.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A place in an administrative, church, military or diplomatic hierarchy; a rank: de prim rang or de rangul întâi “first-class, first-rate”.^[1][3]
2. (mathematics) The number that gives the place of a term in a series.^[1][3]
3. (linguistics) The place of a word or sound in a frequency list.^[3][12]
4. (obsolete) A row of people.^[1][3]

Related words

• aranja
• deranja

Usage notes

MDA2 also records a regional neuter rang as a variant of rangă “crowbar”, a different word.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 912
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rang
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 623
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rang
5. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ a b c Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1087
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
11. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
12. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 531