scândură

Forms

scândură f (plural scânduri)^[1] MDA2 records the regional variants schindură, scundură and șcândură and a regional plural scândure.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scandula (“shingle”).^{[3][2][4][5][1]} The word survives in Aromanian scãndurã and Megleno-Romanian scǫndură.^[3][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Catalan escandia, Spanish escanda and Portuguese escandea.^[3] Wiktionary names șindră as a doublet.^[1]

In Latin the word meant a roof shingle, and it also had a form scindula.^[8][9] Romanian shifted the sense from the shingle to the sawn board.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the New Testament of 1648.^[2] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 has the diminutive scândurea for Slavonic доска “board”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The sense is a flat piece of sawn timber, rectangular in section, used in building and carpentry;^[4][11] Costinescu in 1870 placed it between the thin tinichea and the thick dulap.^[4][11] In the plural it also means the floorboards.^[4][12] Phrases compare a very thin person to a board: a se usca ca scândura “to waste away”, a lăsa pe cineva scândură “to strip someone of everything”, and scândură de salvare is a last means of escape.^[4][2]

Timeline

• 1648 – the first record, in the New Testament.^[2]
• 1649 – the diminutive scândurea in Mardarie's lexicon.^[10]
• 1664 – scândură for Slavonic доска in a lexicon.^[13]
• 1825 – scảndurả in the Lexicon of Buda, with the Latin equivalents assis and tabula.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A board or plank: a flat piece of timber, wider than it is thick, sawn lengthwise from a trunk and used in building and carpentry.^[4][2]
2. (in the plural) Floorboards, the floor.^[4]

Word family

• scândurea
• scândurice
• scândurărie

Related words

• șindră
• Aromanian scãndurã

Usage notes

A fi ca scândura means “to be very thin”, and a lăsa pe cineva scândură “to leave someone penniless”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 798
3. ^ 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. scândură
4. ^ 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. 987
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7652
6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 904
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 929
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. scandula
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. scandula
10. ^ 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. scîndurea
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 477
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 571
13. ^ 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. scîndură
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. 615