tom

Forms

tom n (plural tomuri)^[1] Cantemir still has the Greek form tomos: „Tomosul al doilea al Hronicului nostru” “the second volume of our Chronicle”.^[2][3] Petru Maior uses an old masculine plural tomi: „Această carte... stă din mai mulți tomi” “this book consists of several volumes”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek τόμος (tómos), with Latin tomus and French tome as further sources in MDA2 and the Academy dictionary.^[3][2] DEX gives French and Latin, Tiktin Greek or Latin and French, and Ciorănescu and Wiktionary French.^[4][5][6][1] The first records have the Greek form ⟨tomos⟩, and the French-type ⟨tom⟩ with the plural ⟨tomuri⟩ took over in the 19th century.^[2][3]

The French word was taken about 1540 from the Latin, which is from Ancient Greek τόμος (tómos, “a piece cut off; a roll of papyrus”).^[7] The Greek noun comes from τέμνω (témnō, “to cut”).^[1][8] Aromanian has tom, which Ciorănescu takes from Greek.^[6][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1722, in Dimitrie Cantemir's Hronicul, where it means a volume of a work in several parts.^[5] MDA2 also gives the Hronicul as the first record.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “one of the volumes of a larger work” has not changed.^[4][5] From the 19th century it is also used more loosely for any big book, as in Eminescu's „tomurilor bracuri” “the chaff of the tomes”.^[2][11] Scriban marked it as rare in his time and preferred volum.^[12]

Timeline

• 1722 – tomos “volume” in Cantemir's Hronicul, the first record.^[5][2]
• 1829 – „29 de tomuri bine legate” “29 well-bound volumes” in Curierul românesc.^[2]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French tome.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. volume, tome: each of the separate, usually numbered parts of a long work.^[4][3][1]
2. (by extension) a book, a work.^[4][3]

Related words

• volum
• Aromanian tom
• Latin tomus

Usage notes

The same form is a learned combining element -tom “cutting”, as in microtom, from French -tome and Italian -tomo.^[14][15][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tom
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, 1237
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1130
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tom
6. ^ a b 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. tom
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1492
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1040
10. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 94
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 451
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1329
13. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 622
14. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. -tom
15. ^ Andrei, Nicolae (1987), Dicționar etimologic de termeni științifici: elemente de compunere greco-latine, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. -tom