agura

Forms

agura (third-person singular present agurează, past participle agurat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *agurō (“to foretell”), the popular form of classical augurō (“to foretell by augury”), from augur (“augur”).^[2][3][4][1] The /au/ became /a/ by dissimilation before a stressed syllable with /ŭ/.^[1] Densusianu first explained the Romanian word this way, and Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu, the REW and the DA followed.^[3][5] DELR takes the Latin noun as probably an old derivative of the root of augeō (“to increase”), first meaning the gods' support for an undertaking.^[2] Romance cognates include Occitan aurar, Spanish agorar and Portuguese agourar.^[6][3]

Aromanian ugure (“luck, omen”) is not the same word: Pascu derived it from augurium, but Papahagi takes it from Turkish, and Ciorănescu traces it from the Latin word through Modern Greek γούρι (goúri) and Turkish.^[7][8][3] Babiniotis also takes the Greek word from Turkish, perhaps from the Latin.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The only record is a folk verse from Bihor printed in the Revista critică literară in 1896: „Badea mieu mi-a agurat, Că voiu fi cu el în sat” “my sweetheart foretold me that I shall be with him in the village”.^[2][10] MDA2's date of 1893 is the first year of the periodical.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word is rare and regional: the DA knows it only from Bihor, and Ciorănescu from western Transylvania.^[10][3] Its sense is “to foretell”, in the source a good fortune.^[10][4]

Timeline

• 1896 – a folk verse from Bihor, the first record.^[2][10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (regional, rare) To foretell, to prophesy, especially good fortune.^{[2][4][11][1]}

Usage notes

MDA2 and Ciorănescu give the present agurez; the DA has agur.^[4][3][10] Sfânta Agura, the popular name of Mount Athos, is a different word, a Romanian adaptation of the Russian name “holy mountain”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. agura
3. ^ 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. agura
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 30
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 9
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 784
7. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 178
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1079
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 319
10. ^ a b c d e 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. agura
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. agura
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 13