aluat

Forms

aluat n (plural aluaturi)^[1] MDA2 records the variant aloat, and Candrea and Densusianu note a Banat form aluwat.^[2][3] The oldest record has the form aluvát.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin allevātum (“raised”), the neuter of the past participle of allevō (“to lift up, raise”), itself from levō (“to lighten, raise”) and levis (“light”).^[4][5][2][1] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW give the same etymon.^[5] Tiktin notes that the initial ⟨a-⟩ allows more than one analysis: a Latin form with ad-, or with ē- as in ēlevō.^[6] Hasdeu took the ⟨a-⟩ as a prothetic vowel added in Romanian to levātum, while allowing that a Latin form with the prefix was possible.^[7]

The sense “leaven” comes from “raise”: the Latin verb also meant “to make dough rise”, as levāmentum (“ferment, leaven”) shows, and the Romance languages have words of this root for leaven: Italian lievito, Venetian levar, French levain and Catalan llevat.^[4][5][3] Ciorănescu notes that no other Romance language has a word formed exactly like the Romanian one.^[5]

The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian aloat and in Istria as Istro-Romanian aluåt;^[8][4][5] Megleno-Romanian has only the diminutive Megleno-Romanian luțǫl.^[8][4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553, in the form aluvát, at Matthew 13:33, the parable of the leaven hidden in three measures of flour.^[4][6] MDA2 dates its first record to 1564, in a fragment of Coresi's Molitvenic.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word meant both the dough and the leaven that makes it rise.^[6][9] The Bible of 1688 has the leaven sense: „Nu știți că mic aluat toată frământătura dospește?” “Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?” (1 Corinthians 5:6).^[6] From the leaven came figurative uses: a preacher quoted by Tiktin calls greed „un aluat vechi” “an old leaven” that spoils one's whole wealth.^[6]

In the plural aluaturi the word came to mean pastries and baked dishes made of dough.^[6][9][2] The figurative sense “stuff, material” appears in the saying din același aluat “of the same dough”, said of people alike in character.^[9][2] The diminutive aluățel “leaven” is recorded from about 1650, and DELR notes that it also names a plant.^[4]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – aluvát in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel, the first record.^[4][6]
• 1564 – aluat in a fragment of Coresi's Molitvenic.^[2]
• 1649 – aluat in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• c. 1650 – the diminutive aloțel in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4]
• 1688 – fourteen occurrences in the Bucharest Bible, the first in Exodus 12:15.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. dough: a paste of flour mixed with water and often fat, sugar or eggs, from which bread and pastries are made.^[12][2][1]
2. A small piece of risen dough kept to make new dough rise; leaven, sourdough starter.^[12][2]
3. A pastry or cake made of dough; mostly in the plural aluaturi.^[12][2]
4. (figurative) The stuff a person is made of: Sunt făcuți din același aluat.^[9][2]

Word family

• aluățel

Related words

• Aromanian aloat
• Latin allevō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 47
3. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 167
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. aluat
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. aluat
6. ^ 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. aluat
7. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. aluat
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 85
9. ^ a b c d 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. aluat
10. ^ 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. aluat
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exodus 12:15
12. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 32