tur

tur¹ turn, round, tour

Forms

tur n (plural tururi)^[1] A plural ture is also used.^[2][3]

Etymology

The word for a turn or round is borrowed from French tour.^[2][4][1] For Tiktin and MDA2 it is also borrowed from German Tour, and Gabinschi calls it a European loan of French origin, which reached Romanian through German and Russian тур (tur) as well.^[3][5][6] Graur notes that tur-retur “there and back” cannot be French and must come from German.^[7]

The French word comes from Latin tornus (“lathe”), from Ancient Greek τόρνος (tórnos).^[8][6] Romanian turna has the same Latin root.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from Costache Negruzzi, 1851.^[3] In 1870 Costinescu's dictionary gave tur as “a movement round, a turn”: turul roții “the turn of the wheel”, un tur de preumblare “a turn of walking”.^[10][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the full turn of a body about an axis or a point;^[11][12] Alecsandri has un tur de valț “a turn of the waltz”.^[11][12] A short walk round a place followed.^[13][12] The word went into the techniques of surveying (tur de orizont, with the figurative sense “a survey of a question”), film (a trage primul tur de manivelă “to start shooting a film”) and sport, where it names the first half of a championship and a long cycling race.^[2][14] Scriban recorded tură as its popular form;^[13][7] Graur doubted that tură in a lucra în tură “to work in shifts” is French.^[13][7]

Timeline

• 1851 – the first record, in Costache Negruzzi.^[3]
• 1870 – turŭ “tour” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[10][5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A full turn of a body about an axis or a fixed point; a movement along a route back to the starting point; in sport, a lap: tur-retur “there and back”.^[2][5][1]
2. A short walk along a route; a stroll; a feat that needs effort and skill: un tur de forță “a tour de force”.^[2][1]
3. (sport) The first half of the rounds of a championship; a long race over a circuit, especially in cycling.^[2]
4. (cards) A round in which each player deals in turn.^[2]

Word family

• turaj

tur² seat of the trousers

Forms

tur n (plural tururi)^[1] Older and regional usage has a masculine plural turi, as in the folk verse „Cu turii de doisprezece” “with seats of twelve (cubits)”.^[15][5]

Etymology

The word for the seat of the trousers is borrowed from Serbo-Croatian tur.^{[2][4][16][1]} Tiktin only compares the Serbo-Croatian word, and Wiktionary calls the origin unknown.^[15][1] Ciorănescu finds its link with stur unclear: if it belongs with stura (“reed mat”) and related words, it may share that word's root, which he takes from Latin stylum, with the idea of a column or hollow cylinder; tureac would then belong to the same family.^[4]

Ciorănescu rejects other proposals: Cihac's derivation from Old Church Slavonic трѫба (trǫba), impossible in its sounds; a link with Albanian trik (Philippide); Old High German theobroch through Medieval Latin tubroces (Diculescu); Hungarian török (Skok, the REW); and Latin thylacus, from Ancient Greek θύλακος (thúlakos, “sack”) (Densusianu, Rosetti, Candrea).^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from about 1832, in Golescu's Condica.^[15] Cihac and Scriban cite from Pann the saying „cine caută gurii, i se dezgolesc turii” “whoever cares for his mouth bares his backside”, that is, a love of good food leads to poverty.^[16][13]

Semantic evolution

From the seat of the trousers the word passed to the backside itself.^[2][5] Regional speech made many idioms of it: a se ține după turul cuiva “to seek someone's protection; to follow someone about”, and a-i țâțâi turul “to be anxious”, a-i pârâi turul “to tremble with fear”.^[5] In Bessarabia tur also means underpants.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – the first record, in Golescu's Condica.^[15]
• 1879 – Cihac derives it from Serbo-Croatian.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (colloquial) The seat of a pair of trousers; by extension, the backside.^[2][5][1]