ritm

Forms

ritm n (plural ritmuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek ρυθμός (rythmós), Latin rhythmus and French rythme: DEX, MDA2, DILF and the DLR give all three, Tiktin adds Italian ritmo, and MDN gives only the French word.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin word is a borrowing of Ancient Greek ῥυθμός (rhuthmós, “measured motion, rhythm”).^[7][1] The Greek noun is derived from ῥέω (rhéō, “to flow”), and Benveniste took its first meaning to be “form” of something moving.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dimitrie Eustatievici's Romanian grammar of 1757, which defines it as a term of versification: „Ritmul iaste adunarea... multora stihuri întru o cuprindere” “rhythm is the gathering of many verses into one whole”.^[4][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word long stayed a term of poetry and music: Negulici's dictionary of 1848 explains it as “number, cadence, measure”, a term of literature and music.^[9][10] By extension it came to mean a verse itself.^[2] In the 20th century it spread to the pace of any activity, the periodicity of a process (ritm cardiac “heart rhythm”) and the repetition of elements in architecture.^[2][11][3] The 19th century also had the plurals ritmi and ritme beside the modern ritmuri.^[5]

Timeline

• 1757 – first record, in Eustatievici's grammar.^[4][3]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1870 – ritmŭ “number, cadence, measure” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The regular succession of stressed and unstressed (or long and short) syllables in verse or prose, or of stresses in a musical phrase; cadence; by extension, a verse.^[2][1]
2. The pace at which an action or activity develops: Lucrările avansează într-un ritm lent.^[2][11]
3. The periodicity of a movement or process: ritm cardiac.^[2][11]
4. A regular movement; tempo.^[2]
5. (architecture) The periodic repetition of architectural or decorative elements.^[2][3]

Related words

• rimă

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 957
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, 715
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ritm
5. ^ 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. ritm
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ritm
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 447
11. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ritm