venă

Forms

venă f (plural vene)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French veine, with Latin vēna as a second model: a learned loan of the 19th century, for which DEX, MDA2 and the neologism dictionaries name both sources.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Gabinschi counts it a learned Latin loan, supported by Italian vena.^[6] It is a doublet of the inherited vână, which comes from the same Latin word.^[1][6][7] The French word is inherited from the same Latin word.^[8] The origin of the Latin word is not agreed: de Vaan sets up a Proto-Italic form and a link with words for blood, but notes that no etymology is accepted.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Vasile Episcupescu's Oglinda înțelepciunii of 1843, a work on anthropology, where the blood of the veins (sângele venelor) of the lower body gathers in an organ.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In anatomy the word took over the scientific use of vână, which became popular: phrases such as vena portă and venă cavă replaced older vâna poartă.^[3] Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 still gave it the French range of senses, from a vein of ore or water to poetic verve.^[10] A figurative sense “luck, a run of luck”, mainly at cards and gaming, is a Gallicism;^[11][2] Vlahuță and Camil Petrescu used it.^[11][2]

Timeline

• 1843 – vene in Episcupescu, the first record of the loan.^[3][4]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses vênă with the vein, a lode and poetic verve.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vein: a blood vessel that carries blood from the capillaries back to the heart; compare vână.^[2][3]
2. (figurative, literary) luck: a favourable turn, especially in a game of chance.^[2][11][5]

Related words

• vână
• venos
• Latin vēna

Usage notes

Anatomy has set phrases such as vena portă “portal vein” and venă cavă “vena cava”.^[3][12]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1191
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, 1452
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. venă
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. venă
6. ^ a b Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera
7. ^ 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. vână
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci
11. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 639
12. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. venă