aceră

Forms

aceră f (plural acere)^[1]

Etymology

It is most probably borrowed from Latin aquila (“eagle”), a Latin word taken up by 19th-century scholars and given a Romanian shape.^[2][3] DELR follows Tiktin, Scriban and Ciorănescu's earlier study in this view.^[2] Ciorănescu himself, in his dictionary, says the word is not found in old texts or in genuine folk speech, so it may be an artificial creation of some Latinist philologist of the 19th century, though one with a remarkable feeling for the language.^[4]

Hasdeu, Candrea–Densusianu, the DA, the REW and DEX treat it instead as inherited from the same Latin word.^[2][5][6][7] Hasdeu held that the word matches the Latin word point for point.^[8] Wiktionary also calls it inherited, and a doublet of acvilă.^[1] Against this, DELR notes that there is no reliable folk record: Marian's ornithology only repeats a statement of Vasile Burlă that the word was in popular use, and Aromanian ațiră, given by Papahagi's dictionary, rests on a single word list printed in a Bucharest journal in 1939.^[2] The Romance cognates are Occitan aigla, French aigle, Catalan àliga, Spanish águila and Portuguese águia.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1852, in Gazeta de Transilvania (no. 56), with the sense “eagle”.^[2] Tiktin's first record is Barcianu's dictionary of 1868.^[3] The variant aciră appears in Marian's ornithology, in a passage saying that the birds scientists call aquilae are called partly acire and partly vulturi by Romanians.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

The word has always meant a large bird of prey, the eagle or vulture.^[4][7] Marian's informant placed the form aciră in Oltenia, and Șăineanu called it the popular name of the vulture there.^[8][10] DER says the word is rare and has practically disappeared today.^[4] The 19th-century Latinists also coined the form ⟨acvilă⟩, which is still used in poetry and heraldry.^[4]

Timeline

• 1852 – Gazeta de Transilvania, no. 56, the first record.^[2]
• 1868 – Barcianu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1883 – aciră in Marian's ornithology, said to be used in Oltenia.^[5][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, rare) An eagle, also a vulture.^{[4][7][11][1]}
2. A hawk.^[1]

Related words

• acvilă
• pajură
• vultur
• Latin aquila

Usage notes

MDA2 lists aceră and aciră as regional variants of acvilă.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. aceră
3. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aceră
4. ^ a b c d e f 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. aceră
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. aciră
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 582
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 6
8. ^ a b c Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. aceră
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 11
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 5
11. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 5
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 13