zid

Forms

zid n (plural ziduri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic зьдъ (zĭdŭ, “wall, building”), from Proto-Slavic *zidъ (“wall”).^[1][2][3][4] MDA2 and the DLR name Bulgarian зид (zid) beside the Slavonic word.^[5][6] In the Old Church Slavonic psalter the word renders Ancient Greek δῶμα (dôma, “house, building”) in Psalm 101:8.^[7] Ciorănescu compares the same word in Bulgarian, Serbian, Croatian and Slovene.^[2]

The word is also Megleno-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian zid, which Capidan takes from Bulgarian.^[2][8] The Proto-Slavic word has cognates such as Old Prussian seydis (“wall”).^[9] Ciorănescu takes the agent noun zidar “mason” and the verb zidi “to build” from Slavonic as well, rather than from this noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest record is the form zidiu in Psalm 101:8 of the Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558), the verse where the Old Church Slavonic psalter uses the Slavonic word.^[10][4][7] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has zid in the same verse and in Psalm 128:5, and MDA2 cites the Psaltirea Scheiană: „să fie ca iarba în zid” “let them be like grass on the wall”.^[11][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, a built wall of stone or brick, has not changed: the Bible of 1688 speaks of the walls of the city that would fall by themselves.^[4][12] By restriction it also means the wall of a room, a perete.^[5][6] Figurative uses include a barrier against outside influences and a protective ring of people, as in a face zid în jurul cuiva.^[5][3] Set phrases name the Great Wall of China, zidul chinezesc, the sound barrier, zid sonic, and the circus “wall of death”, zidul morții.^[5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – zidiu in the Psaltirea Voronețeană, the first record.^[10]
• 1570 – zid in Coresi's psalter.^[10]
• c. 1573–1578 – zid in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5]
• 1660 – zid in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – zidurile cetății “the walls of the city” in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wall: an upright structure of brick, stone or concrete that encloses or divides a space or carries other parts of a building;^[3][1] între (cele patru) ziduri “indoors”.^[3][1]
2. The wall of a room, a perete.^[5]
3. a face zid (în jurul cuiva) “to close ranks around someone, to shield them”.^[3]
4. zid sonic “the sound barrier”;^[3][5] zidul chinezesc “the Great Wall of China”.^[3][5]

Related words

• zidar
• zidi
• zidărie

Usage notes

Old texts and Moldavian also have zidiu;^[4][5] MDA2 lists the rare old and regional variants zâd and zâdi.^[4][5] The plural is ziduri.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. zid
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1225
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. zid
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1574
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. zid
7. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 338
9. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 544
10. ^ a b c 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 101:8
11. ^ 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 128:5
12. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Joshua 6:5
13. ^ 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. zid