undă

Forms

undă f (plural unde)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin unda (“wave”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Its Aromanian counterpart is undã.^[6][7][2] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian yonda, Italian onda, Occitan onda, Catalan ona, Spanish onda and Portuguese onda.^[2][8] The senses of physics follow French onde.^[5][9][10]

De Vaan derives the Latin noun from a collective Proto-Indo-European *udnom (“body of water”), built on the oblique stem of the word for water, *wódr̥ (“water”); its plural was reinterpreted as a singular “wave”.^[11][1] Its cognates include Ancient Greek ὕδωρ (húdōr) and the English word water.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century), with the plural undele “the waves”.^[13][3] The Codicele Voronețean has „Cela ce se gândeaşte aseamănă-se undeei mariei, de vântu lepădată” “he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind” (James 1:6).^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the wave the word extended to the water of the sea, of a river or a lake, and to its surface: a ieși în undă is to come to the surface, and figuratively to come to light.^[3][4] The movement of boiling water gave a da în undă “to come to the boil” and “to bring to the boil”.^[4][14][3] Regional speech uses the plural for fits of temper: a-i veni cuiva undele cele rele “to have one's bad moods come over one”.^[3] Aromanian has similar senses, “caprices” and “nerves”.^[6][7]

In the 19th century the word took the scientific sense of a wave in physics from French, and modern terms such as lungime de undă “wavelength”, unde scurte “short waves” and undă de șoc “shock wave” were formed with it.^[5][9][15] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives unda “to undulate; to boil”, undeza “to boil”, undui “to ripple”, modelled on French ondoyer, and unduios “wavy”, after French onduleux.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – undele “the waves” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[13][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – undeei mariei “of the wave of the sea” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1648 – tăria undelor “the force of the waves” in the New Testament of 1648.^[4]
• 1825 – dau undă “I make waves” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[16]
• 1977 – unda de șoc “the shock wave” of an earthquake in the press.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wave of water: a mass of water that rises and falls in rhythm; by extension, the water of a river, lake or sea; a torrent; rain or snow falling in gusts.^[15][3][1]
2. A gentle current of air; by extension, the air.^[15]
3. A light vibration; a faint sound;^[15][18] (figurative) a surge of feeling: o undă de tristețe.^[15][18]
4. (physics) A wave: the propagation of an oscillation through a medium: lungime de undă “wavelength”, undă seismică “seismic wave”, unde scurte “short waves”.^[15][9]
5. Undă verde: a green wave, traffic lights timed so that cars can pass several in a row.^[15][9]

Word family

• unda
• undeza
• undui
• unduios

Related words

• inunda
• Aromanian undã

Usage notes

The plural is unde.^[15][1] A da în undă “to bring to the boil” is a kitchen phrase: the beans are given a first boil.^[14][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. undă
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, 1371
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. undă
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. undă
6. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1085
7. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 180
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9059
9. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. undă
10. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b 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 41:10
14. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1377
15. ^ 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. 1170
16. ^ 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. 733
17. ^ Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. undă
18. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 578