agest

Forms

agest n (plural agesturi)^[1] A variant agestru occurs in Bukovina;^[2][3] Marian describes the agestru as a mound of earth mixed with wood and stones that a fast stream leaves at a bend.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aggestum (“heap, embankment”) (or aggestus (“accumulation”)),^{[3][4][5][6][1]} from aggerō (“to carry to a place, heap up”), from ad- and gerō (“to carry”).^[3][7] DELR compares, for the sense, Latin aggestiō (“heaping up of sand, alluvium”), and notes that the word survives only in Romanian.^[3][8] Ciorănescu follows Hasdeu, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA, and cites Giuglea's comparison with Spanish conchestra of Ribagorza, from Latin congesta.^[4]

In the variant agestru an /r/ was added by analogy with pairs such as nost and nostru or fereastă and fereastră, as Hasdeu and the DA explain.^[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1558, in the dictionary of Romanian words in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[3][9] MDA2 dates it from Hasdeu's Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae (1886), which quotes it from Năsăud in Transylvania for wood brought down by a stream.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The word names what a flooding stream carries and leaves behind: a heap of logs, branches, stones and mud at a bend of the river, the place where such things gather, and a single log brought down by the water.^[2][5] A place sheltered from the wind is a further sense, recorded by Frâncu and Candrea.^[2] From the image of what the water brings from elsewhere came a figurative sense “newcomer, stranger”, as in tu ești un agest, nu ești de la noi “you are a stranger, you are not one of us”, from Năsăud.^[2]

In Maramureș the word also means poor firewood and rotten wood, and it is used as an insult for a bad man or a lazy woman.^[10] It is a regional word of Transylvania, Bukovina and Moldavia.^[3][11]

Timeline

• 1558 – the first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[3][9]
• 1883 – agestru and the verb agestri “to heap up” in Marian's Ornitologia.^[3][2]
• 1886 – Hasdeu's Etymologicum, with the sense “stranger”.^[5][2]
• 1886 – agesta “to protect”, a single record in Frâncu and Candrea.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) A heap of logs, branches and stones carried by flood water to a bend of a river; alluvium.^[6][5]
2. (regional) The place at a bend of a river where such things pile up.^[6][5]
3. (regional) A log brought down by the water.^[5][2]
4. (regional) A place sheltered from the wind.^[5][2]
5. (regional, figurative) A stranger, a newcomer.^[5][2]

Word family

• agesta
• agesti

Related words

• Latin aggestus

Usage notes

The plural is agesturi or ageste; the variant agestru has the plural agestre.^[6][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. agest
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. agest
4. ^ a b c 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. agest
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 27
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 20
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 277b
9. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. agest
10. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. agest
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. agest