aiurea

Forms

aiurea^[1] Older and regional forms are aiure, aiuri, in Transylvania airea, airi.^[2][3] Dosoftei's verse psalter has aiuri: „Și trimisă Domnul foame-n țară, de-aducea de-aiuri pâinea cu cară” “and the Lord sent a famine on the land, so that bread was brought in carts from elsewhere”.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian aiure + -a, with the adverbial ⟨-a⟩ of aicea and acuma.^[3][4] The older adverb aiure is from Latin aliubi (“elsewhere”), a rare form of alibi made of the stem of alius (“other”) and ubi (“where”).^{[3][5][6][7][8]}

The final ⟨-re⟩ has not been explained.^[3][5] Pușcariu proposed Latin libet (“it pleases”), used to form indefinite pronouns and adverbs, or a form *alitre from aliter;^[8] Tiktin thought the /r/ filled the hiatus left by the lost /b/, as in are from habet;^[8] Ciorănescu suggested a Vulgar Latin *volet (“he wants”), used like the second part of ubivīs (“wherever you like”); the history of the Romanian language published by the Academy proposed Latin rēs (“thing”), which DELR finds hard to accept.^[3][5] The same unexplained ending appears in Ibero-Romance: Catalan enlloure, Spanish alubre and Portuguese alhures.^[8][3] The likeness to French ailleurs may be chance, since the Latin form proposed for French could not give the Romanian one.^[5] Cipariu, Pontbriant and Scriban derived the word from aliorsum, which Ciorănescu finds even harder.^[5][9][10]

The adverb survives in all four branches: Aromanian aljurea, Megleno-Romanian l'urea and Istro-Romanian al'ure.^[5][3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, in John 10:1: the man who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in another way, „pre aiurea”.^[3][2] The sense is local, “by another place, elsewhere”.^[2] MDA2 dates the word to Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[12]

Semantic evolution

From “elsewhere” the word came to describe a mind that is elsewhere: a gândi (într-)aiurea “to let one's thoughts wander” and a vorbi (într-)aiurea “to talk nonsense, to rave”.^[2][6] The verb aiura (also aiuri) “to rave, be delirious”, recorded from 1838, grew out of these phrases.^[3][13] Alecsandri used a călca într-aiurea for being unfaithful in love.^[2][12]

In colloquial Romanian Aiurea! is an interjection, “nonsense, you're wrong”, and the word is used as an invariable adjective, “scatterbrained, absurd”;^[6][12] aiurea-n tramvai is a jocular “all wrong, pointless”.^[6][12][3]

Timeline

• 1561 – aiurea in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1581 – Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[12]
• 1582 – aiurile “elsewhere” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3]
• 1619 – aiure in the Codex Sturdzanus.^[3]
• 1646 – the Transylvanian aiurilea.^[3]
• 1838 – the verb aiuri “to rave”.^[3]
• 1847 – aiureală “delirium, nonsense” in Alecsandri.^[3]
• 1876 – aiurit “delirium” in Eminescu.^[3]
• 1942 – aiuristic “odd, muddled”.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. elsewhere, in another place, somewhere else: S-a mutat aiurea.^[6][12][1]
2. Într-aiurea: aimlessly, at random.^[6]
3. A vorbi aiurea: to talk nonsense, to babble.^[6]

Interjection

1. (colloquial) Nonsense!, not true!, you're wrong!^[6][1]

Adjective

1. (colloquial, invariable) scatterbrained, absent-minded; senseless, absurd.^[6][3]

Word family

• aiura
• aiureală
• aiurist
• aiuristic
• aiurit

Related words

• Aromanian aljurea
• Latin aliubi

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aiurea
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. aiurea
4. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 62
5. ^ 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. aiurea
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 23
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 347
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 19
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 81
11. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 48
12. ^ 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, 31
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 29