AND OFF WE GO! THE NOUN CORABIE ‘CARAVEL’ AND ITS LEXICAL FAMILY IN OLD ROMANIAN

(DICTIONES LATINAE CUM VALACHICA INTERPRETATIONE)

Abstract

In our study, we propose to investigate the ways in which Teodor Corbea, a Transylvanian scholar of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, equates in Romanian the Latin words for certain boats and related objects or activities r with the word corabie ‘caravel’ and its derivatives in his dictionary, Dictiones latinae cum valahica interpretatione, In addition to the wealth of encyclopaedic information, it also contains and highlights its importance for the ancient Romanian culture and medieval lexicography. The dictionary helps us understand the solutions the scholar resorted to in order to better translate the previously specified words. The language analysis of is essentially lexical, which does not exclude other interpretative perspectives (grammatical, for example). To support our investigative approach, we initially made an inventory of the occurrences of the noun, which was specified in the title and its derivatives that appear in the columns of the dictionary. Subsequently, we interpreted them with the aim of illustrating specific structural and lexical-semantic features, and highlighting the lexical richness of the Romanian
language, despite the fact that Romanian maritime terminology was in its early dawn.