aromă

Forms

aromă f (plural arome)^[1] An old neuter variant arom is recorded.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a 19th-century borrowed from French arôme, as MDA2, DEX and Wiktionary give it;^[2][4][1][5] DELR adds German Aroma and Latin arōma, and DEX also names the Latin word.^[2][4][1][5] The DA calls it a neologism after French.^[6] The Latin word is from Ancient Greek ἄρωμα (árōma, “aromatic herb, spice”), recorded from the 5th century BC and of unknown origin.^[5][7]

Ciorănescu disagrees: he derives it from Modern Greek ἄρωμα (ároma), probably taken in the 15th or 16th century through religious terminology, and compares Aromanian arumă.^[8] Pascu also derives the Aromanian word from Greek.^[9] Old Romanian had the related aromat “spice, fragrance”, from 1560–1561 in Coresi, which DELR takes from Old Church Slavonic ароматъ (aromatŭ), itself from the plural Byzantine Greek ἀρώματα (arṓmata).^[5][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1813, in a work by Maior, with the sense “pleasant smell”.^[5][11] MDA2's first record is a poem by Ienăchiță Văcărescu printed in 1848: „D-arome florile-ți mă nvăliră” “your flowers wrapped me in fragrances”.^[2][11][6]

Semantic evolution

The DA defines it as the emanation of fragrant substances, especially those that also act on the taste, and notes the narrower poetic sense “perfume, scent”.^[6] The sense “substance that gives a food a pleasant smell or taste” is the newest.^[4][2][5] The family grew around older and newer loans: aromatic from 1785, and aromatiza from 1840, after French.^[5]

Timeline

• 1560–1561 – the older aromat “spice” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[5]
• 1785 – aromaticesc, an early form of aromatic.^[5]
• 1813 – aromă “pleasant smell”, the first record.^[5][11]
• 1840 – aromatiza “to flavour”.^[5]
• 1848 – in a volume of Ienăchiță Văcărescu's poems printed that year.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strong, pleasant smell given off by certain substances that often also have a pleasant taste; mireasmă, parfum: aroma cafelei “the aroma of coffee”.^[4][2]
2. A substance that gives a product a pleasant smell or taste; a flavouring.^[4][2]

Word family

• aromatic
• aromatiza

Usage notes

Ciorănescu records a separate aromă (also arumă, aron, barba-lui-Aron), the plant Arum maculatum: the scientific name arum, pronounced as in French or as German Aron, confused with aromă “fragrance”.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c 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” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 102
3. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 44
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 63
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. aromă
6. ^ a b c 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. aromă
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 220
8. ^ 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. aromă
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 18
10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 16
11. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aromă