ulm

Forms

ulm m (plural ulmi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ulmus (“elm”), as all the dictionaries agree.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} It survives in Megleno-Romanian as ulm, beside an unclear uolum, and in Aromanian as ulmu.^[2][6][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian olmo, Spanish olmo, Portuguese olmo, Catalan olm and French orme.^[2][7]

Wiktionary traces the Latin word to Proto-Indo-European *h₁élem (“mountain elm”).^[1] De Vaan points out that the word is found only in Italic, Celtic, Germanic and Slavic, with forms such as Old Irish lem and Old Norse almr, and that no single PIE form can be set up; he suspects a non-Indo-European source.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the place name Ulma in 1232, and Ulmii in 1437.^[3] MDA2's first record is before 1451, in Bogdan's glossary of Slavonic documents.^[4] Constantinescu, however, takes Ulma for a name formed on a personal name.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “elm”.^[5][3] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use ulmul to translate Slavonic words for the elm.^[13] Its hard wood was used for cart-making, and a folk verse calls the elm a cousin and the oak a brother: „Ulmu-mi este verișor, Iar stejarul frățior”.^[3][14][5] Botanical Romanian distinguishes ulm de câmp (Ulmus carpinifolia) and ulm de munte (Ulmus scabra).^[5][4]

Timeline

• 1232 – the place name Ulma.^[3]
• 1437 – the place name Ulmii.^[3]
• before 1451 – the first record in MDA2.^[4]
• 1499 – Olyom, the village Ulm in Hunedoara.^[15]
• c. 1660–1670 – ulmul in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses ulmu with Latin ulmus.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. elm: the name of several trees and shrubs (Ulmus) with smooth bark, a bushy crown and asymmetric toothed leaves, whitish and downy beneath; the hard wood is used in cartwrighting.^[5][4][1]
2. ulm de câmp: the field elm (Ulmus carpinifolia); ulm de munte: the mountain elm (Ulmus scabra).^[5]

Word family

• ulmet
• ulmișor

Related words

• Aromanian ulmu
• Latin ulmus

Usage notes

Scriban and the Lexicon de la Buda also list a verb ulma “to sniff out”, which has a separate source;^[17][16] Scriban refers it to adulmeca.^[17][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. ulm
3. ^ 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. ulm
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1362
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1167
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 168
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9036
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1082
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1057
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. ulm
13. ^ a b 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. ulmul
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 566
15. ^ Suciu, Coriolan (1966–1968), Dicționar istoric al localităților din Transilvania, I–II, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 2
16. ^ a b c 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. 732
17. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1374