stâlp

Forms

stâlp m (plural stâlpi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic стлъпъ (stlŭpŭ, “pillar, column; tower”), a word of the Old Church Slavonic of the church.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} Ciorănescu compares Slovene stolp, Czech sloup and Serbo-Croatian stup, the last of which gave Romanian stup “beehive”.^[2] Scriban adds Bulgarian стълп (stǎlp) and Hungarian oszlop.^[8]

The Slavonic word continues Proto-Slavic *stъlpъ, a variant of *stъlbъ, with the cognates Lithuanian stul̃pas and Latvian stùlps.^[9][1] Wiktionary traces it to a derivative of Proto-Indo-European *stel-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1480, in a Slavonic-language document.^[5] In Romanian texts the word appears in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, where it renders Slavonic стлъпъ: „Fie pace în puterea ta și destul în stâlpul păreților tăi” “Let there be peace in your strength and plenty in the tower of your walls” (Psalm 121:7).^[6][4][10] The same psalter has the pillar of cloud of Psalm 98:7.^[11][7]

Semantic evolution

From “pillar, post” the word took several transferred senses.^[6][3] Figuratively a person is the pillar of a family or a country, stâlpul țării, a leading man.^[5][8] In the plural, stâlpii are the four Gospels the priest reads at the wake, and the halts made at crossroads in a funeral procession.^[5][2][12] Ciorănescu also records the senses “cross on a grave” and “stake, tether”.^[2] Tiktin explains the mocking stâlp de cafenea “café regular” as matching French pilier de café.^[5] Mining uses the word for a block of ore left to hold up the roof.^[3]

Among its derivatives, stâlpnic “stylite, hermit” is from Slavonic stlŭpinĭkŭ.^[2] Stâlpare “green branch; the willow of Palm Sunday” probably arose from a confusion of stâlp with Latin stirps “stem”, as Pușcariu and Tiktin suggested.^[2]

Timeline

• 1480 – a record in a Slavonic-language document, the first.^[5]
• c. 1500–1520 – stâlpul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][10]
• 1570 – stâlpii in Coresi's psalter.^[13]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing столпъ.^[14]
• 1654 – twelve tall stone pillars in a church, in a text of that year in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[6]
• 1688 – stâlpul, stâlpii and other forms throughout the Bucharest Bible, ^[15] among them Lot's wife turned into a pillar of salt.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A long thick post of wood fixed in the ground to hold something up; a vertical structural element of wood, metal or reinforced concrete supporting a building, a bridge or power lines: stâlp de telegraf.^[3][4]
2. A leg or ornamental column of a piece of furniture, especially a bed.^[3]
3. (mining) An unworked part of a deposit left to support the roof of a working.^[3]
4. (figurative) A person who is the main support of others: stâlpul casei “the head of the family”.^[3][5]
5. (plural) The four Gospels read by the priest at a wake.^[5][8]

Word family

• stâlpare
• stâlpnic

Related words

• stup
• Old Church Slavonic стлъпъ (stlŭpŭ)

Usage notes

Stâlp de cafenea is a person who spends their time in cafés.^[3] MDA2 records an old plural stâlpuri.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. stîlp
3. ^ 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. 1048
4. ^ 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, 979
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. stâlp
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. stîlp
7. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1244
9. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
10. ^ a b 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 121:7
11. ^ 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 98:7
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 612
13. ^ 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 47:11
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. stîlp
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exodus 36:21