tunsură

Forms

tunsură f (plural tunsuri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian tuns + -ură, from the participle of tunde “to cut hair, shear”, according to the DLR, MDA2, Tiktin and NODEX, which compare Latin tōnsūra (“shearing, clipping”).^[2][3][4][5] DEX instead derives it from the Latin word, shaped after the participle.^[6] Gabinschi leaves both open: inherited from Latin, or formed on the verb.^[7][1] DER lists it among the verb's derivatives.^[8] The verb itself is inherited from *tondō, a variant of tondeō.^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Miron Costin's De neamul moldovenilor (about 1686–1691), on the hairstyles of the Romans: „Doo feluri de tunsuri au luat ardelenii noștri de la râmleni” “our Transylvanians took two kinds of haircut from the Romans”.^[2][4] MDA2's date of 1958 is that of the edition it quotes.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Beside the way of cutting hair, the word was used for the shearing of animals and, by 1787, for wool: lâna de tunsură “shorn wool”.^[2] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives “shorn wool” and also the clippings of a hedge.^[9] The Lexicon of Buda of 1825 adds “usufruct of a piece of land”, a sense also in Klein.^[10][11] Today it is rare: DEX gives it as a synonym of tunsoare “haircut”, and NODEX adds the wool or hair obtained by shearing.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 1686–1691 – tunsură and tunsuri in Miron Costin, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1787 – lâna de tunsură “shorn wool” in a document.^[2]
• 1801 – listed by Klein, also in the sense “usufruct”.^[11]
• 1825 – “shearing” and “usufruct” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[10]
• 1870 – “shorn wool” in Costinescu.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare) A haircut, the way the hair is cut.^[6][3][1]
2. (rare) The shearing of animals.^[3][2]
3. (regional) The wool or hair obtained by shearing.^[5][3][2] De tunsură: shorn (of wool).^[3][2]

Related words

• tunde
• tuns
• tunsoare
• tonsură
• Latin tōnsūra

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tunsură
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1300
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tunsură
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. tunsură
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1154
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 174
8. ^ 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. tunde
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 649
10. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 726
11. ^ a b 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. 460