salbă

Forms

salbă f (plural salbe)^[1] Besides salbe, a popular plural sălbi is used, and Tiktin records the diminutive sălbuliță.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[5][2] DEX, MDA2, NODEX and the Romanian Wiktionary take it as inherited from Latin subalba, a proposal of Candrea, and Wiktionary calls this probable.^{[6][3][7][8][1][5]} DER rejects it, citing Densusianu's objections.^[5]

DER calls the origin uncertain.^[5] It notes that the plant name salbă-moale cannot be explained from the necklace, and so starts from an unrecorded homonym meaning “sage”, which it derives from Latin salvia (“sage”), with Italian salvia, Catalan salvia, Spanish salvia, French sauge and Portuguese salva as cognates.^[5] Wiktionary mentions this view too, explaining the shift by peasant women making necklaces of the plant.^[1] Cihac had explained the change in the same way, but started from Polish szalba, which DER takes rather as a loan from Romanian.^[5]

Tiktin thought it hardly from *exalba or from the Latin form above, and suggested Latin salva (“save!”), first naming an amulet.^[2] Scriban gives two proposals: Medieval Latin alba (“bead”) with the prefix ex-, or Latin silva (“forest”), as a “mass of beads”.^[9] Șăineanu derived it from the same Medieval Latin word with the prefix.^[10] DER rejects the Medieval Latin proposal as well.^[5]

From Romanian the word passed into Ukrainian and into the German dialect of the Transylvanian Saxons.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from about 1660, and a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660–1670 glosses a Slavonic word for an ornament with salbă.^[2][11] MDA2 cites Gaster's chrestomathy for its first record.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a necklace of one or more strings of coins, medals, beads or precious stones;^[6][2] Tiktin specifies gold coins, and in a wider sense glass beads or cowrie shells.^[6][2] Costinescu in 1870 described it as a row of coins or medals worn by women at the neck.^[12] Figuratively it names any string of things, as a salbă de munți “a chain of mountains”.^[2][3] From the shape came the sense “dewlap” of cattle and some sheep, and regionally “chin” and “shelf”.^[6][3][2] The plant names salbă-moale and salbă-râioasă denote species of spindle tree.^[6][3] The ironic expression salba dracului “the devil's necklace” is a person one cannot be rid of;^[6][9][10] Scriban and Șăineanu gloss it as a nephew hoping to inherit.^[6][9][10] In underworld slang it means a criminal record.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1660 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[2]
• c. 1660–1670 – salbă in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1825 – salbă “neck ornament” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[14]
• 1870 – a necklace of coins worn by women, in Costinescu's dictionary.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A necklace of one or more strings of coins, medals, gems or beads.^[6][3][1]
2. (figurative) A row or chain of things of the same kind: o salbă de lacuri.^[3][2]
3. (zoology) The dewlap of cattle and some sheep; fanon.^[6][3][1]
4. (regional) A velvet band embroidered with flowers and beads, worn by girls on the head.^[3][5]
5. In compounds, a shrub of the genus Euonymus (spindle tree): salbă-moale (Euonymus europaeus, E. latifolius), salbă-râioasă (Euonymus verrucosa).^[6][3][1]
6. (slang) A criminal record.^[13]

Related words

• colier
• salvie

Usage notes

MDA2 also lists two homographs, regional variants of sihlă and of solbă.^[3][15] In the expression a lăsa pe cineva în salba lui it means to leave someone to his own ways.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. salbă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 748
4. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 6
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. salbă
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 972
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. salbă
8. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1149
10. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 560
11. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. salbă
12. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 460
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. salbă
14. ^ 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. 604
15. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. salbă