alună

Forms

alună f (plural alune)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *abellōna, a variant of Latin abellāna (“hazelnut”), properly the “nut of Abella”, a town in Campania.^[2][3][4][1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the ending by the suffix -ōna found in other town names.^[5] The ending also appears in Occitan and Lyonnais forms, while Italian avellana, Old French avelaine, Spanish avellana and Portuguese avelã continue the regular Latin form.^[3][6][7] The loss of the Latin /b/ between vowels is regular, as in cal from caballus.^[1] Tiktin starts instead from avellāna, through ⟨*alană⟩ and ⟨*alână⟩.^[8]

The word is found in all four branches: Aromanian alunã, Megleno-Romanian lună and Istro-Romanian alure.^{[2][9][10][11]} The shrub, alun, is a back-formation from the fruit, like prun from prună.^[3][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of the 1660s (Lex.St.) has the word.^[12] DELR's first record is Teodor Corbea's dictionary of 1691–1697, with the sense “hazelnut”.^[2] The shrub alun is older as a place name, Alun, in a document of 1525.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The hazelnut is the fruit of the alun;^[13][6] alune turcești are those of the Turkish hazel.^[13][6] The word also names the peanut, alune americane or alune de pământ.^[6][4] In Transylvania alune de pământ, shortened to alune, meant potatoes.^[6][13] In slang the word means a testicle.^[14]

The diminutive aluniță “mole on the skin” is either a Romanian diminutive, as the DA held, or the Romanian form of Bulgarian луница (lunica, “freckle”), as Pușcariu proposed;^[3][15] Ciorănescu prefers the first, while BER takes the Bulgarian word from Romanian.^[3][15]

Timeline

• 1525 – the place name Alun, from the shrub.^[2]
• c. 1660–1670 – alună in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1691–1697 – alună “hazelnut” in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.^[2]
• 1703 – Tiktin's first record.^[8]
• c. 1743 – “raisins, figs, hazelnuts were plentiful” in Neculce's chronicle.^[6][13]
• 1825 – alunar “hazel bush” and alunet “hazel grove” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[2]
• 1866 – alunel, a folk dance, in Alecsandri.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. hazelnut: the nut of the hazel, round or oval, with a hard shell.^[4][13][1]
2. alună de pământ or alună americană: the peanut (Arachis hypogaea), the plant and its seed; arahidă.^[4][13][1]
3. (regional, Transylvania) a potato.^[13][6]
4. (slang) a testicle.^[14][1]

Word family

• alun
• alunar
• alunel
• aluniș
• aluniță
• aluniu
• alunică

Related words

• Aromanian alunã
• Latin abellāna

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. alună
3. ^ a b c d e 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. alună
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 32
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. alună
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. alună
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 17
8. ^ 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. alună
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 87
10. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 87
11. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 186
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. alună
13. ^ 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, 47
14. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. alună
15. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 513