aorea

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian a- + ori + -a: the adverbial ⟨a-⟩ with ⟨ori⟩, “times”, the plural of the noun, and the adverbial ⟨-a⟩ of alăturea and alocurea.^[1][2][3][4] MDA2 compares adeseori and arareori, and Ciorănescu and MDA2 compare Albanian aherë.^[2][3]

Candrea–Densusianu took it instead from Latin ad + hōram (“hour”), the source of the noun as well, comparing Old French aor, Occitan aora, Catalan ara, Spanish ahora and Portuguese agora.^[5] Wiktionary gives the same Latin source.^[6] Pontbriant in 1862 compared Italian allora.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Omiliar of 1581.^[1] MDA2's is Moxa's chronicle of 1620, which says the Greeks and Trojans beat each other by turns: „aoria biruia grecii pre troiani, aoria troianii pre greci” “now the Greeks defeated the Trojans, now the Trojans the Greeks”.^[2][1]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant “sometimes, now and then”, and repeated it meant “now … now”.^[1][4] Dosoftei uses it so of a dragon in a chasm, now baring its teeth, now stretching out its tail.^[1] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin aliquando, interdum.^[8] Today it survives only in Transylvania, Banat, Oaș and Maramureș.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 1581 – Coresi's Omiliar, the first record.^[1]
• 1620 – Moxa's chronicle.^[2][1]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary.^[8]
• 1862 – Pontbriant's dictionary.^[7]
• 1869 – Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary.^[10]
• 1886 – Barcianu's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Adverb

1. (old, regional) sometimes, now and then.^{[2][9][11][6]}
2. (old, repeated) aorea … aorea: now … now, at one time … at another.^[1][4]

Related words

• oară
• uneori
• câteodată

Usage notes

Old and regional variants include aoare, aoarea and aoria.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aorea
2. ^ 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, 77
3. ^ a b 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. oară
4. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. aorea
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. aorea
6. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 35
8. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 303
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 109
10. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 243
11. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 28