arete

Forms

arete m (plural areți)^[1] DELR records the variants aret and harete;^[2] MDA2 adds the old ariete, areț and areate.^[3][2] Dosoftei's psalter has the plural areț: „Rădica-voiu ție cu tămîie și areț” “I will offer you rams with incense”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aries (“ram”), through the oblique form ⟨*aretem⟩ for classical ⟨arietem⟩.^{[3][5][6][7][2]} The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁r-i-(e)t- (“a certain domestic animal”).^[1][8]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian areate, Megleno-Romanian reti and Istro-Romanian arete.^[5][3][9] In Aromanian the word became an adjective, in phrases such as ⟨birbec areate⟩ and ⟨cal areate⟩.^[6] Its Romance relatives include Dalmatian reti and Occitan aret.^[7][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Coresi's Cazania of 1564, and DELR dates the word to Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor of 1567–1568.^[10][3] In these texts it means “ram”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

In the old written language arete was the general word for the ram: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Țapii și areții suindu-se pre oi și pre capre” “the he-goats and the rams leaping upon the sheep and the goats”.^[10][11] Cantemir used it for the battering ram, „areate, un fel de bolovani cu carii, bătînd, zidiurile cetăților sfărîma” “a kind of beam with which they broke the walls of fortresses by striking them”, and for the constellation Aries.^[4][12] The Lexicon of Buda used it for a pile driver.^[12]

The everyday word became berbec, and arete survives in Banat, Transylvania, Oltenia and northern Moldavia for the breeding ram kept apart from the ewes.^[3][2][10] In Maramureș it is a ram of about four years kept for breeding.^[13] MDA2 also records the senses “breeding cock” and, in the plural, the day the flock is divided, when the rams are separated from the ewes.^[2] Pușcariu and Scriban note that Ukrainian аретій (aretij) was borrowed from Romanian.^[6][14]

Timeline

• 1564 – in Coresi's Cazania, Tiktin's first record.^[10]
• 1567–1568 – in Coresi's Tâlcul evangheliilor, DELR's first record.^[3]
• 1688 – areții in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1887 – arețar “keeper of rams”, recorded by Hasdeu.^[3]
• 1906 – arioi “group of sheep separated from the flock”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, dated) A ram kept for breeding; a ram.^[2][15][1]
2. (obsolete) A battering ram.^[4][3]

Word family

• arețar
• arățel

Related words

• berbec
• Aromanian areate
• Latin aries

Usage notes

A separate arete in MDA2, the DA and Tiktin is a variant of herete, a bird name.^[2][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 93
3. ^ 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. arete
4. ^ a b c Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 55
5. ^ a b c 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. arete
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 10
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 645
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aréte 1
11. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 31:10
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. arete
13. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. aréte
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 119
15. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 40
16. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aréte 2