scară

Forms

scară f (plural scări)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scāla (“ladder, stairs”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The senses of “scale” and “gamut” follow French échelle and Italian scala.^[4][3][6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian scarã and Megleno-Romanian scară.^[2][7][8][9] Ciorănescu compares Albanian shkallë, Catalan escala, Spanish escala and the Italian and French words.^[2] Wiktionary names scală, escală and schelă as its doublets.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1556.^[10] MDA2's is Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the ladder came a flight of steps, the step of a carriage and the stirrup of a saddle.^[2][6] A ladder-shaped bread given at funerals is also called scară.^[10][2] The plant Polemonium caeruleum is scara Domnului, “the Lord's ladder”.^[10][6]

The abstract senses, a rank or grade, a graduated scale, the scale of a map and the musical scale, followed the French and Italian words; an old sense “table of contents” has gone out of use.^[6][2] Pe scară largă means “on a large scale”.^[6] In Aromanian the word also means a generation.^[7]

Timeline

• 1556 – in a Slavonic–Romanian document, the first record.^[10]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ladder, two long side pieces joined by rungs, for climbing up and down.^[6][3][1]
2. A staircase, a flight of steps; a step on a vehicle.^[6][1]
3. A stirrup.^[6][1]
4. A graded series or hierarchy; the musical scale;^[6] (dated) a table of contents.^[6][2]
5. A graduated line on an instrument; the scale of a map or drawing.^[6]

Word family

• scărar
• scărilă
• scăriță
• scăriș

Related words

• scală
• escală
• schelă

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. scară
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, 789
4. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scară
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7637
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 985
7. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 926
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 152
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 259
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scară