tobă

Forms

tobă f (plural tobe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian dob (“drum”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The variant dobă, with the Hungarian initial, is the form of Moldavia and Transylvania.^[2][6] The derivative tobaș “drummer” has its own Hungarian model, Hungarian dobos.^[2] Scriban traces the Hungarian word further back to Arabic, through other languages; this is his view.^[6]

The Hungarian word is probably onomatopoeic, imitating the sound of a hollow object being struck, and may share its stem with dobog (“to thump”).^[7][8] It is recorded in names from the 12th century, and as the name of the instrument from 1338.^[7][8]

The word passed from Romanian to Bulgarian тоба (toba), as Capidan held.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1654, in the Romanian translation of the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab: „să cade domnului să aibă la masa sa multe fieluri de tobe și de vioare și de surle de veselie” “it befits the prince to have at his table many kinds of drums, fiddles and shawms for merriment”.^[9] A text of about 1650–1675 in Gaster's chrestomathy has the form dobe in a call to battle „cu trâmbițe, cu buciume şi dobe” “with trumpets, alphorns and drums”.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the drum is a military and ceremonial instrument, beside trumpets and shawms: Nicolae Costin writes doabe and Cantemir dobă.^[5][9] Because the drum was beaten to call people for announcements and public auctions, a bate toba came to mean to make something public or give away a secret, and a vinde cu toba to sell at auction.^[3][6][4] A fi tobă de carte “to be very learned” compares a well-read person to a full drum.^[9][4]

The name was transferred to things of drum shape: the silencer of an exhaust, a drum in machines, a film canister,^[4] the part of a threshing machine where the ears are fed,^[10] and the oven of a cooking stove.^[11] A pig's stomach stuffed with chopped meat and offal is tobă, a kind of brawn.^[4][9] In card games it names the suit of diamonds.^[4][9] Regionally the word also means a pig's stomach, silkworm cocoons kept for breeding, and, as dobă, a whirlpool.^[5][11]

Timeline

• 1654 – tobe in the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab, the first record dated by Tiktin.^[9]
• c. 1650–1675 – dobe in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy.^[5][3]
• c. 1660 – the word in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• c. 1710 – doabe in Nicolae Costin's chronicle.^[5][9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drum: a percussion instrument made of a short, wide hollow cylinder of wood or metal with a skin stretched over each end, struck with two sticks; tambur.^[4][3]
2. Any of several hollow cylindrical objects, such as the silencer of an exhaust (tobă de eșapament), a drum in machines, or a film canister.^[4]
3. A kind of brawn: a pig's stomach stuffed with pieces of meat, bacon and offal.^[4]
4. (card games) The suit of diamonds; caro.^[4][9]

Word family

• tobaș

Related words

• Hungarian dob

Usage notes

A bate toba means to drum one's fingers on something, to have fits of coughing, or to give away a secret;^[4][3] a bate toba la urechea surdului is to give advice in vain.^[4][3] A fi tobă de carte is to be very learned, and a face pe cineva tobă de bătaie to give someone a sound beating.^[4] The variant dobă is old and regional.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. tobă
3. ^ 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, 1231
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1129
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tobă
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1327
7. ^ a b Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
8. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 650
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tobă
10. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”
11. ^ a b Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 114
12. ^ 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. tobă