vestiar

Forms

vestiar n (plural vestiare)^[1] The first record has the Latinist form vestiariu: a girl asks her mother for „cheia de la vestiariu” “the key of the wardrobe” to put her clothes away.^[2][3] Besides the plural vestiare a rare vestiaruri is recorded.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vestiaire, the source DEX, MDN and Wiktionary give.^[5][6][1] MDA2, the DLR and DEXI add borrowed from Latin vestiārium (“chest or cupboard for clothes”), and the DLR derives the first, Latinist sense “chest” from the Latin word only.^[3][2][7] Scriban gives only the Latin source.^[8] The Latin word is formed from vestis (“garment”) with -ārium.^[1] French borrowed it from Latin around 1200.^[9]

The same Latin word had reached Romanian much earlier through Byzantine Greek and Slavonic as vistier “treasury”, which DER takes from the same Latin word through Byzantine administration.^[10][11] Moroianu lists the pair among the etymological doublets of Romanian.^[12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Andrei Mureșanu's adaptation of a book by Salțman and Han on child-rearing, printed at Brașov in 1848, as vestiariu “chest for clothes”, a Latinism that did not last.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The modern senses follow French: a small room at the entrance of a house where coats and hats are left, the cloakroom of a theatre or public building, and the changing room of a factory, hospital or stadium.^[2][5][3] Scriban's dictionary of 1939 has the cloakroom sense, and the DLR quotes it from 20th-century writers such as Papadat-Bengescu, Camil Petrescu and Călinescu.^[8][2] In the cloakroom sense it is a synonym of garderobă.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1848 – vestiariu “chest for clothes” in Mureșanu's Icoana creșterei rele, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1939 – Scriban defines vestiar as the cloakroom of a public place.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A cloakroom in a public building, where coats are left in keeping; garderobă.^[5][3]
2. A small room at the entrance of a home, where coats and hats are left.^[5][3]
3. A changing room in a factory, hospital or stadium, where people leave their clothes and put on work or sports gear: Jucătorii au intrat la vestiar la pauză.^[5][7]
4. (obsolete, Latinism, as vestiariu) A chest or cupboard for clothes.^[3][2]

Related words

• vistier
• French vestiaire
• Latin vestiārium

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vestiar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1465
4. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. vestiar
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. 1195
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. vestiar
7. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. vestiar
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1402
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ 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. vistier
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1491
12. ^ Moroianu, Cristian (2005), Dublete și triplete etimologice în limba română, București: Editura Universității din București, p. 138