talie

Forms

talie f (plural talii)^[1] The old spelling tallie occurs in Heliade's Don Juan (1847): „Tallia-i era resărită” “her figure was tall”.^[2][3]

Etymology

DEX 2009 and Wiktionary take it borrowed from Russian талия (talija), which is itself from French taille.^[4][1] Ciorănescu and Tiktin give the French word as the source, Tiktin adding that it may have come by way of another language, and Ciorănescu compares Polish talia and the Russian word.^[5][6] MDA2 and the DLR list several sources together: Russian, French, Italian taglia and German.^[3][2] Marcu's dictionary of neologisms puts it as a Russian word taken over on the model of the French one.^[7]

The French noun is a deverbal of Old French taillier (“to cut”),^[1] so Scriban explains it as “the cut of the body”, the way a garment is cut to it.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1833, and the DLR quotes a text of that year that describes three twin sisters who looked alike “in face and in figure”, la față și la talie.^[6][2] The first sense was a person's height or build.^[2] MDA2's first record is Heliade's Don Juan of 1847, in the spelling tallie.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DLR's first sense is a person's stature or size.^[2] From it came the size by which clothes are cut and the standard sizes of ready-made clothing.^[2][9] By analogy it was used of animals and plants, as in birds “of small size”.^[2] The sense “waist”, the narrow middle of the body, is quoted from Negruzzi, Bolliac, Alecsandri and Eminescu on; from it came the part of a dress that covers the waist and the phrase în talie “in one's coat or dress only, without an overcoat”.^[2][4]

Figuratively it means calibre or standing: de talie “of talent, of worth” is quoted from Caragiale, and a fi de talia cuiva “to be someone's equal” was recorded by Barcianu in 1886.^[2][10] In card games it is one deal at baccarat, quoted from Vlahuță, and rarely a pack of cards.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1833 – first record, of a person's figure.^[6][2]
• 1846 – a plăti talii “to pay taxes”, a rare old sense, in an economic document.^[2]
• 1847 – tallia in Heliade's Don Juan.^[3]
• 1865 – Pisone's dictionary glosses it “stature”.^[11]
• 1886 – Barcianu records a fi de talia cuiva “to be someone's equal”.^[10]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the length of the body, the build from shoulder to waist, and the part of a coat round the waist.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The waist, the narrower middle of the human body above the hips; the part of a dress or coat that covers it; also the trunk from the shoulders to the hips.^[4][13]
2. stature, height, size; the size to which clothes are made: o rochie pe talia ei “a dress in her size”.^[4][9]
3. (figurative) Level, calibre of skill or knowledge: de talie “of worth”;^[4][3] a fi de talia cuiva “to be as able as someone”.^[4][3]
4. The time taken to deal the cards in a game of baccarat.^[4]

Related words

• tăia
• detaliu
• French taille

Usage notes

În talie means dressed only in a jacket or dress, without an overcoat: A ieșit în talie, deși era frig.^[4] A rare old sense “tax”, in a plăti talii “to pay taxes”, is recorded in 1846.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. talie
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1152
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1101
5. ^ 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. talie
6. ^ 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. talie
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. talie
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1296
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. talie
10. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 636
11. ^ Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 375
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 637
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 379