ara

Forms

a ara (third-person singular present ară, past participle arat, third-person subjunctive are), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arō (“to plough”), a verb kept by the whole Romance family.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin verb comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂erh₃- (“to plough”).^[6][1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian ar, Megleno-Romanian ar and Istro-Romanian arå.^[2][3][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian arare, Old French arer, Spanish arar and Portuguese arar.^[3][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1560–1561, in Luke 17:7, the servant ploughing in the field.^[2][10] The Palia de la Orăștie (1582) speaks of the seventh day as rest „de-a ararea și de-a secerarea” “from ploughing and reaping”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “to turn the soil with a plough”, with phrases for the season: a ara de toamnă, de primăvară.^[10][4] The proverb boii ară și caii mănâncă “the oxen plough and the horses eat” is said when one person toils and another profits, and parcă a arat dracul cu el “as if the devil had ploughed with him” describes someone worn to the bone.^[11][10] Poets have used it figuratively, of searchlights ploughing the darkness.^[12] In slang it means to stab with a knife, or to case a place before a theft.^[13]

The Latin word for the plough survives in Aromanian, but Daco-Romanian replaced it with the Slavic loan plug;^[8] Mihăilă explains this by the new iron-bladed plough the Slavic word named.^[2] Derivatives include arat “ploughing” and arătură “ploughed land”;^[8] arabil “arable” is a 19th-century loan from French.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.^[2][10]
• 1582 – ararea “ploughing” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[8]
• 1688 – ara and arând in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1806 – arat “ploughing” in Șincai.^[2]
• 1848 – arabil “arable”, from French, in Negulici.^[2]
• 1869 – Barițiu gives ara for Hungarian szánt.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To plough, to turn over the soil in furrows to prepare it for sowing: Țăranii ară toamna.^[4][16][1]
2. (slang) To stab with a knife; to case a place before a theft.^[13]

Word family

• arat
• arător
• arătură

Related words

• Aromanian ar
• Latin arō

Usage notes

A separate masculine noun ara “macaw”, a long-tailed South American parrot, is a 20th-century loan from French ara, itself from Tupi;^[17][18][19] MDN also names Spanish.^[17][18][19] The verb's present is ar, ari, ară, with the subjunctive să are.^[4][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ara
3. ^ a b c d 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. ara
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 57
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 105
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 25
8. ^ 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. ara
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 508
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ara
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. ara
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 113
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. ara
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 17:7
15. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 507
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ara
17. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. ara
18. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ara
19. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 86