tâmplă

tâmplă¹ temple (of the head)

Forms

tâmplă f (plural tâmple)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the temple of the head is inherited from Vulgar Latin *templa.^[2][3][1] DEX takes it as a form of Latin tempora, the plural of tempus (“temple of the head”);^[2][1] Wiktionary gives that view and a second one, the feminine of templum (“temple”) used through confusion with the word for the temple.^[2][1] Ciorănescu, after Pușcariu, the REW and Tiktin, explains it by that confusion.^[4]

The Romance cognates are Italian tempia, Sicilian tèmpula, Occitan templa and Old French temple.^[4][5] Megleno-Romanian timbă belongs here, by Capidan's tentative account.^[4][6] In Transylvania the temples are also called by a plural that continues the Latin plural regularly.^[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The dative plural tîmplelor “to the temples” is in the Psaltirea Voroneț and the later 16th-century psalters (Psalm 131:5).^[8] MDA2 cites the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word is used throughout the country, less in the west.^[4] By extension it names the hair over the temples, and regionally the hollow behind the ear.^[3][2]

Timeline

• c. 1551-1558 – tîmplelor in the Psaltirea Voroneț.^[8]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – tâmplelor in the same psalm in the Bucharest Bible.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. temple: either side of the head between the eye, the ear, the forehead and the cheek.^[2][3]
2. The hair over the temples: tâmple încărunțite “greying temples”.^[2]
3. (regional) The hollow behind the ear.^[3]

tâmplă² iconostasis

Forms

tâmplă f (plural tâmple)^[1]

Etymology

The word for the iconostasis is inherited from Latin templa, the plural of templum (“temple”).^[2][3][10] Pușcariu saw in it the same narrowed sense as in the Serbian, Slovene and Modern Greek words for the screen.^[11] He noted that Vitruvius used the Latin plural for the roof purlins, and took tâmplar (“carpenter”) from that sense, comparing words for beams and purlins in northern Italian dialects; the REW lists the Romanian word under the same etymon.^[11][12]

Ciorănescu prefers a Latin origin through Byzantine Greek τέμπλον (témplon, “iconostasis”), citing Roesler and Tiktin, and compares Albanian templë.^[4] He grants that a direct Latin origin, the view of Pușcariu, Șăineanu, the REW, Pascu and others, suits the sounds better, but says it leaves the match in meaning with the Greek unexplained.^[4] He supposes that the old screens were simple partition walls or balustrades, hence a sense “beam” lost in Romanian but kept in the Aromanian word for a beam, and so the carpenter's name;^[4] Tiktin and Candrea read the carpenter's name as first meaning the maker of iconostases.^[4] Papahagi derives Aromanian templu (“iconostasis”) from Greek, while Pascu takes it from Latin.^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților (1682–1686), in a passage on the iconostasis breaking into small pieces.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

An inventory of about 1690 lists „1 tâmplă lungă, cu cănafi de mătase” “one long tâmplă with silk tassels”, which the DLR puts under the extended sense of the curtain over the royal doors.^[10] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 glosses it with Latin frons altaris “the front of the altar”.^[15] Regionally it is a beam over the porch that carries the roof.^[3]

Timeline

• 1682-1686 – Dosoftei's lives of the saints, the first record.^[3][10]
• c. 1690 – a tâmplă with silk tassels in an inventory.^[10]
• 1776 – tâmplari “carpenters” in a guild document.^[16]
• 1825 – glossed “front of the altar” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. iconostasis: the screen of icons between the altar and the nave of an Orthodox church; catapeteasmă.^[2][3]
2. By extension, the curtain over the royal doors.^[3][10]
3. (regional) A beam over the porch that holds up the roof.^[3]

Word family

• tâmplar