treaptă

Forms

treaptă f (plural trepte)^[1] Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581 has an old plural treapture, „treapture den ceale mici” “steps from the small ones”.^[2][3] Regional forms include dreaptă (Transylvania, Banat) and the plural trepți.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin trāiecta, the feminine of trāiectus (“crossed”), past participle of trāiciō (“to throw across, to cross”).^{[5][6][3][7][4][1]} The verb trece “to pass” comes from the same Latin verb.^[5] Scriban traces the sound changes through *traicta and *trecta, as in dreaptă from dīrēcta: Latin /kt/ became /pt/.^[8]

The first sense is not certain: Pușcariu thought it was “threshold”, a place of crossing.^[7] Tiktin gives two paths: “something pushed through”, hence a rung of a ladder, or “a crossing”, hence a footbridge.^[4] Aromanian uses scarã for the step.^[7] Șăineanu (1929) still called the word of unknown origin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, where it has the plural treapture.^[3][2] Tiktin cites the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582), Exodus 20:26, the commandment not to go up by steps to the altar.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense, a step of a staircase, was soon used figuratively for a degree or stage, din treaptă în treaptă “step by step” in a text of 1794.^[4][2] The ladder sense, a rung, sits beside it.^[6] From degree came rank, position and social class.^[6][3] In the Psalms, Cântecul treptelor is the Song of Degrees.^[4]

Regional and technical senses include a stile, the buckets of a mill wheel and a degree of a thermometer.^[3] Before 1989 treapta was also the name of the two parts of the lyceum and of the exam between them.^[10] The adverb treptat “gradually” was coined in the 19th century.^[5]

Timeline

• 1581 – treapture in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3][2]
• 1581–1582 – the Palia de la Orăștie, Exodus 20:26.^[4]
• 1654 – a church staircase “with 12 steps”, in a dated record.^[2]
• c. 1660–1670 – glosses Slavonic степень in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1794 – din treaptă în treaptă “step by step”.^[4]
• 19th century – the adverb treptat.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A step: each of the narrow flat surfaces at different heights that make up a staircase.^[6][3][1]
2. A rung of a ladder.^[6][1]
3. (figurative) a degree, level or stage; rank or position.^[6][3]
4. (figurative) a social class or stratum.^[6]

Word family

• treptat

Related words

• trece
• traiect

Usage notes

MDA2 has a separate regional noun treaptă “clayey soil” from Oltenia, of unknown origin.^[3][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. treaptă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1268
4. ^ 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. treaptă
5. ^ 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. treaptă
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. 1142
7. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 164
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1342
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 664
10. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. treaptă
11. ^ 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. treaptă
12. ^ Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 116