tablou

Forms

tablou n (plural tablouri)^[1] Early texts also write tablo: „un tablo ce înfățișa pe Guilom Tel” “a tableau that showed William Tell” (a newspaper of 1830).^[2] An old plural tabloane was common in the 19th century: „Tabloane statistice” “statistical tables” (a calendar of 1851).^[2][3] Regionally the form is tablău, with plurals tablaie and tablauă.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French tableau (“board; picture; table”), the source every dictionary gives.^{[2][4][3][5][1]} It belongs to the French loanwords of the early 19th century: the first record is from 1817.^[3][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, in a document of 1817 printed in the Uricariul collection, has the sense “table, list”: each commission was to keep a register following a paragraph and „tabloul alăturat” “the attached table”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The word came in with the sense “table, list”, and the sense “painting” follows in 1829: „un tablo pe care înfățișează moartea lui Mihaiu Vodă” “a painting that shows the death of Prince Michael”.^[2] In 1830 the newspapers used it for a theatrical tableau, a group of actors holding a scene, the later tablou viu.^[2] From the 1830s it also meant a view or scene that strikes the eye, and a description in words, as in a calendar of 1851 that gives “a little tableau, in words, of each age”.^[2] The technical senses, a switchboard or a panel of instruments (tablou de bord “dashboard”), are modern.^[5] In Bârsana, Maramureș, the regional form tablău means a land register.^[2][3]

The Latinists disliked the loan: Laurian and Massim's glossary of 1871 calls it badly formed from French and holds that a proper form could only be tabellu, and calls the form tablonu worse still.^[6] The familiar phrase a rămâne tablou “to be left dumbfounded” is recorded by Zanne and in Topîrceanu.^[2]

Timeline

• 1817 – “table, list”, in a document in the Uricariul collection, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1829 – “painting”, in the spelling tablo.^[2]
• 1830 – a theatrical tableau, tablo.^[2]
• 1833 – a description in words.^[2]
• 1851 – the plural tabloane in tabloane statistice.^[2]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French tableau, liste and résumé succinct.^[7]
• 1870 – Costinescu lists the painting, a scene, a list of members and a blackboard.^[8]
• 1871 – Laurian and Massim reject it as a bad loan from French.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A painting, drawing or engraving on wood, canvas or cardboard; by extension a framed picture or photograph hung on a wall.^[5] Tablou viu (or vivant): a tableau vivant.^[5][1]
2. A view in nature that impresses by its beauty or picturesqueness.^[5]
3. (figurative) A description or evocation in words.^[5][9]
4. In the theatre, a division of a play or act marked by a change of scenery or a lapse of time.^[5]
5. A table or list.^[5][3]
6. An arrangement of terms, symbols or numbers in rows and columns, an array.^[5][1]
7. A panel of marble, metal or wood carrying the instruments that operate or monitor a technical system;^[5] tablou de bord “dashboard”.^[5]

Related words

• tabel
• tablă

Usage notes

A rămâne tablou (colloquial) means “to be left speechless, dumbfounded”.^[5][9] In chemistry tabloul periodic al elementelor is the periodic table.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tablou
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1147
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tablou
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1098
6. ^ a b Laurian, A. T.; Massim, I. C. (1871), Glossariu care coprinde vorbele d'in limba romana straine prin originea sau form'a loru, cumu si celle de origine indouiosa, Bucuresci: Noua Typographia a Laboratoriloru Romani, p. s.v. tablou
7. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 722
8. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 592
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. tablou