sonor

Forms

sonor m or n (feminine singular sonoră, masculine plural sonori, feminine/neuter plural sonore)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French sonore.^[2][3][4][1] DEX 2009, DN and MDN add a second source, borrowed from Latin sonōrus (“full of sound, loud”),^[5][6][7] which Scriban gave as the only source.^[8] The French adjective is itself a learned borrowing from the Latin one.^[1]

The Latin adjective is formed on sonor (“a sound”) with the suffix -us.^[1][9] It meant loud or resounding, as of winds, rivers or a lyre.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 takes the first record from Heliade's translations from Byron, printed in 1834.^[2] The DLR quotes the passage, where the word describes the ringing of bells, „luciul sonor al clopotelor” “the sonorous gleam of the bells”: the sense is “resounding, producing sound”.^[4] Tiktin's first record is from 1851.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Costinescu in 1870 defined it as having a pleasant sound, with the examples of a voice and of verses,^[11] and Barcianu in 1886 glossed it with German hell and wohlklingend.^[12] Șăineanu added a hall that carries sound well.^[13] Tiktin and Scriban record the phonetic sense “voiced”, of consonants pronounced with the vocal cords vibrating, and Scriban also the figurative “emphatic”, as in promisiuni sonore “high-sounding promises”.^[3][8]

With the cinema the adjective came to describe films with speech and music, and the neuter noun sonor names the sound part of a film or television programme.^[5][7] DEX 2009 also gives a figurative “important, renowned”, and by extension “pretentious, emphatic”.^[5] MDA2 records an old feminine plural sonoare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1834 – the first record, in Heliade's translations from Byron.^[2][4]
• 1851 – Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 1870 – “having a pleasant sound” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1886 – Barcianu's Romanian–German dictionary.^[12]
• 1939 – the phonetic sense “voiced” and the figurative “emphatic” in Scriban.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Producing sounds, often strong ones, by vibration; resounding or making something resound.^[5][2]
2. (often adverbial) With a pleasant, harmonious and carrying sound.^[5]
3. That amplifies sound; resonant, as a hall.^[5][6]
4. (phonetics) Of consonants: voiced, pronounced with the vocal cords vibrating.^[5][8]
5. Of films: accompanied by speech and music.^[5]
6. (figurative) Important, renowned; by extension, pretentious or emphatic.^[5]

Noun

1. The soundtrack, the sound part of a film or television programme (neuter).^[5][7]

Related words

• sunet
• Latin sonōrus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 934
3. ^ 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. sonor
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sonor
5. ^ 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. 1034
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ a b c Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1223
9. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 535
12. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 596
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 603