turna

turna¹ to pour

Forms

turna (third-person singular present toarnă, past participle turnat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The word for “to pour” is inherited from Latin tornō (“to turn on a lathe, to round off”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin verb is formed on tornus (“lathe”).^[6][1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian tornu, Megleno-Romanian torn and Istro-Romanian tornu.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian tornare, French tourner, Occitan tornar, Catalan tornar, Spanish tornar and Portuguese tornar, which kept the senses “to turn” and “to return”.^[2][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest records are in the 16th-century psalters, where the verb means “to turn back, to return”: the Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558) has the forms turnași and toarne.^[10][11] The DLR quotes the psalter line „Toarnă-se spre seară... și încungiură cetatea” “they return at evening … and go round the city”.^[5] MDA2 dates its first record to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[3]

Semantic evolution

Șăineanu explains the history of the meaning: the Latin verb meant “to turn on a lathe” and then “to turn” in general;^[12] Romanian kept the general sense in the compound înturna, while the simple verb narrowed to “to pour”, that is, to turn a vessel over.^[12] Ciorănescu compares the semantic development of vărsa and of Spanish verter.^[2] The older senses “to return”, “to give back”, “to turn in another direction” and “to convert someone from evil” are now obsolete.^[3][5]

From pouring liquids the verb passed to casting metal in a mould: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has Și-i turnă patru verigi de aur “and he cast four rings of gold for it”.^[13] Later uses are figurative and colloquial: “to rain heavily”, “to dash off a text”, and in slang “to arrest, to put in prison” and “to inform on someone”.^[2][4][14]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – turnași and toarne in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[10]
• 1564 – se poate turna la Dumnezeu “can return to God”.^[5]
• 1570 – turna in Coresi's psalter.^[15]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – “to pour” and “to cast” in the Bucharest Bible (Exodus 29:7, 37:3).^[13][16]
• 1929 – Șăineanu lists the senses “to pour”, “to rain hard”, “to cast” and “to fabricate”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pour a liquid, or by extension a fluid, into, onto or over something: A turnat lapte în cană.^[4][1]
2. (impersonal, colloquial) To rain heavily.^[4][14]
3. To cast: to pour molten material into a mould so that it sets in its shape.^[4][1]
4. (figurative, colloquial) To dash off a piece of writing; to make something up in order to deceive.^[4]
5. (colloquial) To put someone in prison; to hit someone with the fists.^[4]
6. (colloquial) To denounce someone, to inform on them.^[4][14][1]
7. (obsolete) To turn back, to return; to give back.^[3][5]

Word family

• înturna
• turnat
• turnător
• turnătorie
• turnătură
• răsturna
• turnare

turna² to shoot a film

Forms

turna (third-person singular present turnează, past participle turnat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The word for “to shoot a film” is borrowed from French tourner (“to turn; to shoot (a film)”).^{[4][17][18][19][5][1]} The French verb goes back to Latin tornō, the Latin source of the verb “to pour” as well.^[20]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR's first record is in Pușcariu's Limba română (volume 1, page 387): „Auzim ... despre cutare regizor de cinematograf că a turnat un film nou” “we hear … that such-and-such film director has shot a new film”.^[5][3] It is used again in the review Contemporanul in 1955.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To shoot a film: to record on film, one after another, the sequences that make it up; by extension, to make a film or take part in making it.^[4][5][1]