schemă

Forms

schemă f (plural scheme)^[1] MDA2 records the old variants shimă and șemă.^[2]

Etymology

It is a neologism that the dictionaries derive from several languages: borrowed from French schème, with Latin schēma (“form, figure”) (DEX), with Italian schema and German Schema as further models (MDA2).^[3][2] Marcu names French, German and Latin, and Wiktionary French, which took it from Latin.^[4][1] Gabinschi counts it among the international words that came through Latin.^[5]

The Latin word is from Ancient Greek σχῆμα (skhêma, “form, shape, figure”).^[6][1] The Greek noun belongs to the root of ἔχω (ékhō, “to have, to hold”), so that its first meaning is “bearing, form”.^[7][8]

Ciorănescu points out that the word is a doublet of schimă “form, gesture; monk's habit”, which came earlier from Byzantine Greek and Slavonic.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is a text of before 1839 published in the Buletinul Comisiei Istorice.^[2] Tiktin notes that Laurian and Massim used the old word schimă for the scheme or outline, before schemă took over.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The early dictionaries define it as a figure reduced to a few lines that shows not the true form of things but their relations and working.^[12][13] From that came the senses of a summary plan or outline of a work and of a simplified technical drawing of a machine, a circuit or a process.^[3][2] In the planned economy it named the table of posts and salaries of an institution, and by extension its staff.^[2][14] Used disapprovingly, it means a presentation that is too sketchy to go beyond a fixed pattern.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1839 – the first record, in a text published in the Buletinul Comisiei Istorice.^[2]
• 1871–1876 – Laurian and Massim use schimă for “scheme”.^[11]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as a figure reduced to a few lines.^[12]
• 1955–1957 – the DLRLC adds the sense of a table of posts and salaries.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. An outline, a plan reduced to a few main lines or ideas that gives an overall view of a work.^[3][2][1]
2. A simplified diagram of the parts or structure of a device, a machine, an installation or a process;^[3] schemă bloc “block diagram”, schemă logică “flow chart”.^[3]
3. A table of the posts and salaries of an institution or a company; by extension, its staff.^[3][2]
4. (derogatory) An oversimplified account that does not go beyond set patterns.^[2]

Related words

• schimă
• schematic
• schematiza
• schematism

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 803
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 988
4. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. schemă
5. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 159
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. schēma
7. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 800
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier, p. s.v. schema
9. ^ 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. schimă
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 804
11. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. schimă
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 573
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1168
14. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 46