strâmtură

Forms

strâmtură f (plural strâmturi)^[1] The old texts spell it strimtură: „Acest loc așezat în strimturi era nepriincios oastei” “this place, set among narrows, was unfavourable to the army” (a document of 1810).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian strâmt + -ură, from the adjective strâmt “narrow” with the noun suffix -ură.^[4][2][5] Ciorănescu also lists it among the derivatives of the adjective.^[6] The DLRM derived it instead from Vulgar Latin *strinctura beside Latin strictūra, and Wiktionary favours that view, making the word a doublet of the later borrowing strictură.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1420, from Suciu's dictionary of the localities of Transylvania, that is, a place name.^[5] In Romanian texts, the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of about 1660 gloss Slavonic тѣснота “narrowness” with strâmtura.^[8] MDA2's first record is Grigore Ureche's chronicle (c. 1642–1647), where an army was led into strimturi “narrows” that neither horse nor foot could pass.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant a narrow place: a mountain pass, a defile, a strait of the sea (strâmtura Gibraltar, 1830).^[2][6] Coresi's Evanghelie uses it for narrowness itself: the camel cannot pass the eye of a needle because of its great narrowness.^[2] In the Îndreptarea legii it is a restriction imposed as penance, beside fasting, and MDA2 adds the sense “privation”.^[5][4] Its senses are the same as those of the more common strâmtoare, which has replaced it.^[4][3]

Timeline

• 1420 – a Transylvanian place name, the first record.^[5]
• c. 1642–1647 – strimturi “narrows” in Ureche's chronicle, MDA2's first record.^[4][2]
• c. 1660 – strâmtura glossing Slavonic тѣснота “narrowness” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – strâmturile in the Bucharest Bible, 1 Kings (1 Samuel) 24:1.^[9]
• 1830 – strâmtura for the Strait of Gibraltar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete and popular) A narrow place: a pass, defile or strait; a strâmtoare.^[4][3][1]
2. (obsolete) A narrow arm of the sea, a strait.^[4][2]
3. (rare) Narrowness, tightness.^[4][2]
4. (obsolete) Restriction, privation.^[4][5]

Related words

• strâmtoare
• strictură

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. strâmtură
3. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 267
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1008
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. strâmtúră
6. ^ a b 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. strâmt
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 807
8. ^ a b 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. strâmtură
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Împărății 24:1