agru

Forms

agru n (plural agre)^[1] Old texts have the plural agre, still used in Aromanian;^[2][3] MDA2 gives agruri as the usual plural and an old variant agur.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ager (“field, land”), continuing the accusative agrum.^[4][5][1][6] The Latin word comes from *h₂éǵros, like Ancient Greek ἀγρός (agrós) and Old English æcer.^[1][7]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian agru (“cultivated field”) and Megleno-Romanian agru (“field, ploughed land”).^[4][8][9] Among the Romance languages the REW lists Venetian agro, the Old Venetian form, and DELR also names Italian dialect, Old French, Occitan, Catalan, Old Spanish and Galician forms.^[6][5]

Ciorănescu notes that the word survived in Transylvania, and that after it fell out of general use it was revived by learned words of the same origin, such as agrar, agricol and agronomie.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the Psaltirea Voronețeană (1551–1558), with the sense “field, ploughed land”.^[5] Tiktin quotes the Codicele Voronețean, translating James 5:4: „Prețurile lucrătoriloru celora ce au lucratu agrele voastre” “the wages of the labourers who worked your fields”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Hasdeu stresses that the word was far from a neologism: it is frequent in the oldest church texts, and in some places the peasants still used it.^[10] The psalters of Coresi and his successors have the plural agre in Psalm 106:37, and Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 glosses Slavonic words with it.^[11][12] A New Testament of 1648 uses it in the parable of the mustard seed, „carele-l ia omul și-l samănă-n agrul lui” “which a man takes and sows in his field”.^[13]

In the 19th and 20th centuries it remained a regional word of Oltenia, Banat and Transylvania.^[13][2][14] In Banat it also meant the top layer of soil, and in Oltenia the crop of a field.^[14][3] Ștef notes records from Transylvania until the end of the 19th century.^[15]

Timeline

• 1551–1558 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[5]
• c. 1563–1583 – agrele “the fields” in the Codicele Voronețean (James 5:4).^[2][3]
• 1570 – the plural agre in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 106:37).^[11]
• 1648 – agrul “the field” in a New Testament.^[13]
• 1649 – agru in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete or regional) A field, ploughed land, a plot of cultivated land.^{[3][2][13][1]}
2. (regional, Banat) A layer of soil, the top layer of a piece of land.^[3][14]
3. (regional, Oltenia) The crop, the produce of a field.^[14]

Related words

• ogor
• țarină
• agrar
• agricol
• Latin ager

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. agru
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 30
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. agru
5. ^ a b c d 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. agru
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 276
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 65
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 9
10. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. agru
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 106:37
12. ^ a b 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. agru
13. ^ a b c d Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 45
14. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. agru
15. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. agru