sondă

Forms

sondă f (plural sonde)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sonde.^[2][3][1] The verb sonda and the noun sondaj were borrowed separately, from sonder and sondage.^[2]

The French word is recorded from Chrétien de Troyes (about 1175). It is usually traced to Old Norse sund (“sea; strait”): sailors would have taken the first part of Norse compounds such as sundgyrd (“sounding pole”) and sundline (“sounding line”) for the whole.^[4] Wiktionary gives the same account with Old English sundġierd (“sounding-rod”) and sundlīne (“sounding-line”).^[1] Diez proposed instead Medieval Latin subundare (“to plunge, submerge”), from which the French verb and then a back-formed noun would come, but the noun is recorded before the verb.^[4] Scriban too thought it perhaps related to the Scandinavian word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to I. Golescu's Condica limbii rumânești, a manuscript dictionary of about 1832, and its oldest sense is the sounding line, a lead on a cord with which the depth of water and the nature of the bottom are measured.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 already lists several instruments: the surgeon's probe, the customs officer's spike for testing goods, the sounding line, a drill for exploring the layers of the earth, and a long needle for testing meat and cheese.^[6] Șăineanu in 1929 and Scriban in 1939 add an oil well with its rig, and Scriban gives the burning of a well at Câmpina as an example.^[5][7] This is now its main sense.^[8] Ciorănescu also records a colloquial sense “tall glass, beer glass”.^[2] Later compounds name instruments sent into the air and into space: balon-sondă “sounding balloon” and sondă spațială “space probe”.^[8][9]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – first record, in I. Golescu's manuscript dictionary, for the sounding line.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu lists the surgeon's probe, the customs spike, the sounding line and an earth drill.^[6]
• 1929 – Șăineanu adds the oil well with its rig.^[7]
• 1939 – Scriban records the burning of an oil well at Câmpina.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A borehole drilled into the earth's crust to extract oil or gas or to explore the deep layers; also the installation above it, an oil well or rig.^[8][1]
2. A device for taking a small sample from a compact or granular material such as earth, cement or sand; also a large mechanical drill for exploring the soil.^[8]
3. (medicine) A tubular probe of metal or rubber, used to explore or empty a cavity of the body or to drain a wound.^[8][3]
4. An instrument for measurements in water, such as its depth, or for taking samples from the bottom; a sounding line.^[8][3]
5. A sensor connected to a measuring apparatus that can be placed at various points to explore a physical field.^[8]
6. In the phrases balon-sondă, a balloon with instruments sent up into the atmosphere, and sondă spațială, an unmanned spacecraft that explores space.^[8]
7. (colloquial) A tall glass, a beer glass.^[2]

Related words

• sonda
• sondaj

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. sondă
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, 933
4. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1222
6. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 535
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 603
8. ^ 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. 1034
9. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. sondă