aer

Forms

aer n (plural aere)^[1] The plural aere is used mainly in the expression a-și da aere “to put on airs”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin āēr (“air”), itself from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr).^[3][4][5][1] Ciorănescu, following Pușcariu, the REW and the DA, takes it directly from Latin.^[4][6] Tiktin points out that old Romanian did borrow some Latin words in writing (testament, austru, pedestru, asin), but he too notes that the word is generally held to continue the Latin one and that it exists in every Romanian dialect.^[7]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian aeru, Megleno-Romanian aeru and Istro-Romanian åier.^[4][3] DELR writes the Aromanian form áir, and Ciorănescu notes a further Aromanian aera taken from Modern Greek αέρας (aéras).^[3][4] The sense “look, bearing, manner” follows French air, and the old sense “tune, melody” is a calque of the same French word and of Italian aria.^[3][7] Other Romance cognates include Sardinian aera, Occitan aire, Spanish aire and Portuguese ar, and Ciorănescu also compares Albanian ajër.^[4][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first certain record to 1581, in Coresi's homiliary, and Tiktin gives the same year.^[3][7] A form aieru in a Slavonic manuscript of about 1390–1410 may be older, but DELR counts it as uncertain, since the word also exists in Slavonic.^[3] The sense was the physical one from the start: an Apostol of 1683 says that the visible world was made of four elements, „den foc, den aer, den apă, den pământ” “of fire, of air, of water, of earth”.^[6][5]

Semantic evolution

Besides the gas itself, the older language used the word for the weather or climate and for the sky, the space between earth and heaven.^[6][5] The figurative “atmosphere, influence of a place” appears in the 19th century.^[6] In the same century French gave the sense “look, appearance, bearing”, from which comes a-și da aere “to give oneself airs”; the sense “tune, melody”, also from French and Italian, did not last.^[3][7][2]

Most of the word's family came from French on the same Latin base, and Ciorănescu notes that these neologisms clashed with the inherited word: the verb aera looks like a derivative of aer but reproduces French aérer.^[4][3] Aerisi “to air” is older, recorded from 1795, and comes from Modern Greek αερίζω (aerízo).^[3] DELR treats aeresc, which the DA cites from Cantemir, as a misreading of ceresc “heavenly” in the modern editions.^[3]

Timeline

• 1390–1410 – aieru in a Slavonic manuscript, an uncertain record.^[3]
• 1581 – Coresi's homiliary, the first certain record.^[3][7]
• 1649 – aer glosses Slavonic “air” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1683 – the four elements, fire, air, water and earth, in an Apostol.^[6][5]
• 1795 – aerisi “to air”, from Greek.^[3]
• c. 1832 – aerian “aerial”, from French.^[3]
• 1839 – aera “to aerate”, from French.^[3]
• 1900 – aeraj “ventilation”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. air: the mixture of gases that forms the lower layers of the atmosphere and that living things breathe;^[1] la aer “outdoors, in the open”.^[2][5][1]
2. The sky, the atmosphere, the space above the ground: Fumul se ridica drept în aer. “The smoke rose straight into the air.”^[2]
3. (dated) climate, weather.^[5][6]
4. Look, appearance, expression, bearing: Avea un aer obosit. “He looked tired.”^[2][7]
5. (obsolete) A tune, melody.^[3][6]

Word family

• aera
• aeraj
• aerator
• aerație
• aereală
• aerian
• aeriseală
• aerisi
• aeros

Related words

• Aromanian aeru
• Latin āēr

Usage notes

Set expressions: a lua aer “to go out for fresh air”;^[1] a fi ceva în aer “to be in the air, about to happen”;^[1] a fi în aer “to be in a critical position, with no prospects”;^[1] a avea aerul că… “to seem to…”.^[2] DEX lists a homograph aer² (plural aere), the church veil that covers the chalice and paten, and the embroidered cloth showing the dead Christ that is carried round the church on Good Friday.^[2][10] It comes from the Greek ἀήρ of the Byzantine liturgy, probably through Slavonic, with its form adapted to aer “air”;^[1] DELR records it from 1570, in Coresi's liturgy.^[11][12][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 16
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. aer¹
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. aer
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 20
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. aer¹
7. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aer 1
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 240
9. ^ 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. aer
10. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aer 2
11. ^ 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. aer²
12. ^ 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. aer²