tuna

Forms

tuna (third-person singular present tună, past participle tunat, third-person subjunctive tune), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tonō (“to thunder”).^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tenh₂- (“to thunder”), the root of English thunder too.^[1][7]

It survives in Aromanian tun and Megleno-Romanian tun, which DER also gives with the infinitive tunari.^[1][2][8] Its Romance cognates are Italian tonare, French tonner and, with an ⟨r⟩, Spanish tronar, Catalan tronar, Occitan tronar and Portuguese troar.^[2][6]

The noun tunet “thunder” is formed with the suffix -et, as sunet from suna in DER's view, while Diez, Tiktin and Candrea derived it from Latin tonitrus.^[2] tun “cannon” is a back-formation from the verb, or Pușcariu's tonus.^[2] The regional senses “to burst in” and “to come down” are not explained: DER compares tuli and Tiktin calls the sense obscure.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the form tunră in Psalms 17:15 and 28:3.^[10][5] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has „Tună den ceriu Domnul” “the Lord thundered from heaven”.^[9][10] In these texts the subject is God or the heavens.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Already in the psalters the voice of God „tună” over the waters, and the sense of a loud voice or sound has lasted: rocks, bells and words tună.^[5] From the 18th century it was used of speaking vehemently against someone: Cantemir has it in his Hronic, and a tuna și a fulgera is “to rant and rage”.^[5][4] In imprecations it means “to strike with lightning”: Tuna-te-ar!^[9][4]

With the coming of artillery it was used for firing cannon, recorded in 1829 and in Bălcescu, a sense now dated.^[5][9] The noun tun “cannon” follows the same line.^[2]

A regional sense “to burst in, enter suddenly” appears in Petru Maior and Șincai and in folk poetry: „Tun în casă, focu-i stins” “I burst into the house, the fire is out”.^[5][9] In the Hațeg area it also means “to come down”, and in Maramureș “to knock down” and “to reach as far as”.^[11][12][5] The DLRLC treats this sense as a separate verb.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – tunră in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalms 17:15 and 28:3), the first record.^[10]
• 1570 – tună in Coresi's psalter.^[10][9]
• c. 1650 – in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary.^[3]
• 1688 – tunat in the Bucharest Bible (1 Kings 2:10 and Psalm 28:3).^[14]
• early 18th century – Cantemir uses it of vehement speech.^[5]
• early 19th century – “to burst in” in Petru Maior and Șincai.^[5]
• 1829 – of firing cannon, in a newspaper report.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal) To thunder: Tună și fulgeră. “It is thundering and lightening.”^[4][3][1]
2. (regional, in curses) To strike with lightning.^[4][3]
3. To boom or resound loudly, of a voice to ring out, of people to shout.^[4][3] A tuna și a fulgera: to rage.^[4][3]
4. (dated) To fire a cannon or other firearms.^[4][5]
5. (regional) To burst in, to enter suddenly, and in Hațeg to come down.^[13][11][5]

Word family

• tunar
• tunărie
• tunător
• tunet
• tun

Related words

• detuna
• fulgera
• Latin tonō

Usage notes

A tunat și i-a adunat “it thundered and brought them together” is said of people who team up because they share the same faults.^[3][5] A separate verb tuna, present tunează, from English to tune, is used in recent slang for customising a car.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. tuna
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, 1299
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1153
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tuna
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8778
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 303
9. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tuna
10. ^ a b c d Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 17:15
11. ^ a b Densusianu, Ovid (1915), Graiul din Țara Hațegului, București: Socec, p. 339
12. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1925), Graiul și folklorul Maramureșului, București: Cultura Națională, p. 235
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 519
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Psalm 28:3
15. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. tuna