țăran

Forms

țăran m (plural țărani, feminine equivalent țărancă)^[1] The older form țărean (plural țăreni) is in Petru Maior: „Nu s-au obicinuit aici biruitorii a aprinde lăcașurile țăreanilor” “the conquerors were not used here to burning the dwellings of the inhabitants”.^[2][3] MDA2 also records the obsolete țerean and țeran.^[3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian țară (“country, land”) + -ean.^{[4][3][2][5][6]} Tiktin explains ⟨-an⟩ from ⟨-ean⟩ by the same loss of palatal quality seen in old forms such as țărâșoară.^[7] Wiktionary allows a Vulgar Latin *terriānus as well, but notes that the vowel shows an original țărean.^[1] The REW lists it among the Romanian derivatives of the Latin word for land.^[8]

The noun for country is from Latin terra (“land, earth”).^[5][8] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) took it from Latin terrēnus, a view of its time.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1586, a Romanian word in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[7] MDA2's first is Moxa's chronicle (1620), where it means the inhabitants of a country: „Și-l iubea boiarii și toți țăranii de pre în toată lumea” “and the boyars and all the inhabitants throughout the world loved him”, of the emperor Titus.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant an inhabitant of a țară, a country, and in the 18th and early 19th centuries also a native or a fellow countryman.^[2][3] Since țară also meant the countryside, the sense “peasant, villager” grew beside it and became the main modern one;^[2][7][4] Miron Costin already sets the țăran beside the boyar and the soldier.^[2][7][4] The derogatory sense “boor” followed.^[3][10]

In Transylvania and Banat țărani or țăreni were, before 1918, the Romanians from Wallachia and Moldavia, the Țara across the mountains; in Banat the word named settlers from Wallachia, also called bufani.^[2][3] In Transylvania it also means a man of the plain, opposed to muntean “highlander”.^[7][11]

Timeline

• 1586 – in a Slavonic–Romanian document, the first record.^[7]
• 1620 – țăranii “the inhabitants” in Moxa's chronicle.^[3]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• c. 1675 – the peasant set beside boyar and soldier in Miron Costin.^[7]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda gives “native, compatriot”, with “ploughman, villager” as a further reading.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A peasant: a person who lives in the country and works mainly in farming and stock-raising; a member of the peasantry: Țăranii ieșiseră la secerat. “The peasants had gone out to reap.”^[4][3]
2. (derogatory) An uncouth, ill-mannered person; a boor.^[3][1]
3. (regional, Transylvania) A man of the plain, as opposed to a highlander.^[7][11]
4. (obsolete) An inhabitant or native of a country;^[3][2] (Transylvania and Banat, before 1918) a Romanian from Wallachia or Moldavia.^[3][2]

Word family

• țărănesc
• țărănime
• țărancă
• țărănește
• țărănoi
• țărănist

Related words

• țară

Usage notes

The feminine is țărancă.^[7][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. țăran
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1317
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1159
5. ^ a b 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. țară
6. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 98
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. țăran
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8668
9. ^ a b 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. 704
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1362
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. țăran
12. ^ 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. țăran