spate

Forms

spate n (plural spate)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin spatha (“broad blade, sword”), through its plural spathae.^[2][3][4][5] It began as the plural of spată “shoulder blade”, used as a singular for the back: Șăineanu called it the plural of that noun now taken as a singular, and DER treats it as a variant of that noun used only for the back and the rear of things.^[6][7] Wiktionary traces the sense through the phrase în spate, meaning across the shoulder blades and so behind, before the word became a noun for the back of anything.^[1] Graur explains the name by a comparison of the shoulders with a sword.^[8]

Latin borrowed the word from Ancient Greek σπάθη (spáthē, “any broad blade”).^[1] spadă “sword”, from Italian, is a doublet of the same word.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The articled form spatele occurs in Psalm 90:4 in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century and in the Voroneț psalter, which Tiktin cites as the first record of spate.^[9][2] MDA2's first record is the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, a Romanian–Latin glossary of c. 1650–1700.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin describes the path of spată: first the upper part of the back formed by the two shoulder blades, then the back as a whole.^[10] As spate took over the back, spată kept the shoulder blade, the reed of the loom and, in old texts, the sword.^[10][7] The DLR quotes a text of 1773 with hair hanging „preste umăr și preste spate” “over the shoulder and over the back”.^[3]

The word also names the back of a thing (spatele casei “the back of the house”, the back of a chair), and the adverbial phrases în spate, din spate and pe la spate mean behind or from behind.^[2][4] Figuratively a avea spate is to have backing or protection, a use Tiktin records.^[2][11] In swimming it names the backstroke.^[11]

Timeline

• early 16th century – spatele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• c. 1551–1558 – spatele in the Voroneț psalter, Tiktin's first record.^[9][2]
• c. 1650–1700 – spate in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4]
• 1773 – „preste umăr și preste spate” “over the shoulder and over the back”.^[3]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda lists spate as a feminine plural used as a singular, “back”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The back: the rear part of the human body from the shoulders to the waist; the upper part of an animal's body along the spine.^[11][4][1]
2. The back or rear side of an object: the back of a chair, of a house.^[11][2][1]
3. The shoulders, as the place where loads are carried: a duce sacul în spate.^[4][1]
4. (figurative) backing, protection: a avea spate.^[11][3]
5. The backstroke in swimming.^[11]

Related words

• spată
• spadă
• Latin spatha

Usage notes

The plural is also spate; regional speech has spaturi.^[3][4] Common idioms are a întoarce spatele “to turn one's back”, pe la spate “behind someone's back” and a nu ști nici cu spatele “to have no idea”.^[11][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. spáte
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spate
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 943
5. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 607
7. ^ a b c 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. spată
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
9. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 90:4
10. ^ 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. spátă
11. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1037
12. ^ 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. 660