tei

Forms

tei m (plural tei)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tilia (“linden tree”), which became masculine on the model of the other tree names, as Ciorănescu, Tiktin and Wiktionary explain.^[2][3][1] Pușcariu, Tiktin, Scriban and DEX start from a Vulgar Latin masculine *tilius or neuter *tilium; for Pușcariu the classical feminine survived only in the sense “bast, hemp fibre”.^[4][3][5][6] Tiktin suggests that the neuter plural ⟨teie⟩ “bast cords” may continue the original feminine singular, as in French tille “linden bast”.^[3] The Latin word may be a borrowing from a Mediterranean substrate shared with Ancient Greek πτελέα (pteléa, “elm”); de Vaan finds no certain etymology.^[1][7]

The word survives in Aromanian as tiljiu.^[2][1] Megleno-Romanian uses the Slavic word lipă instead.^[4] Its Romance cognates include Italian tiglio, Occitan telh, Old French teil and Catalan tell.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1496, citing the Wallachian series of the Documenta Romaniae Historica.^[3] MDA2's first record is in Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where a saint girds himself with a linden-bast cord: „să-ncingea cu un tei” “he girded himself with a linden cord”.^[9][3]

Semantic evolution

The tree name gave a second, neuter noun with the plural teie: the fibre of the inner bark, used for tying and for making cords, ropes and mats, and a cord made from it.^[6][9] Neculce describes harness made of linden bast, „cu hamuri de tei”.^[3] By extension the word names linden flowers and the tea made from them.^[9] Compounds name species: tei alb “silver linden” and tei pucios “small-leaved linden”.^[6]

The bast sense lives on in idioms: a lega două-n tei “to manage to put a little money aside” and a găsi tei de curmei “to find excuses”.^[6] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss the word with Slavonic липа.^[10]

Timeline

• 1496 – first record, in a Wallachian charter.^[3]
• c. 1660 – glossed with Slavonic lipa in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1682–1686 – tei “linden cord” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[9][3]
• c. 1743 – hamuri de tei “linden-bast harness” in Neculce's chronicle.^[3]
• 1801 – téi “Tilia” in Klein's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. linden or lime tree, a tree with large heart-shaped leaves and strongly scented white or yellowish flowers used in medicine (Tilia platyphyllos); plural tei.^[6][9][1]
2. (neuter, plural teie) bast: the fibre of linden bark, used for tying and for making cords, ropes and mats; a cord made of it.^[6][9]
3. (regional) Linden flowers; linden-flower tea.^[9]

Word family

• teios
• teișor
• teiș

Related words

• Aromanian tiljiu
• Latin tilia

Usage notes

The word has two plurals: masculine tei for the trees and neuter teie for the bast and cords made from it.^[6][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. tei
3. ^ 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. tei
4. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 159
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1306
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1112
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8735
9. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1190
10. ^ 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. tei
11. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 456
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 405