auă

Forms

auă f (plural aue)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūva (“grape, bunch of grapes”), with a prothetic a-: ⟨*úă⟩ became ⟨aúă⟩ and then ⟨áuă⟩.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin compares the same a- in Aromanian aumbră.^[5] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian auã and Megleno-Romanian uă.^[2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian uva, Spanish uva, Portuguese uva and Sardinian ua.^[3][8] De Vaan suggests a loan from a non-Indo-European language, since related tree names elsewhere show a different ablaut.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the plural, written au, in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553.^[2] The Psaltirea Scheiană has „sânge de auo” “blood of the grape”, in the canticle of Deuteronomy.^[5][10]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu thought the word already archaic in the 17th century.^[3] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 and the other 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons still gloss the Slavonic words for grapes with it.^[11][12] It was replaced by strugure, but Oltenia kept it as the name of a grape variety with small, close-set berries.^[3][13][1] Aromanian kept it as the ordinary word for grapes.^[1][7]

Timeline

• 1551-1553 – the plural au in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel, the first record.^[2]
• c. 1573-1578 – sânge de auo in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5][13]
• 1649 – strugur de auo in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• 1660 – aua in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete) grape, grapes; strugure.^[13][11][1]
2. (regional, Oltenia) A grape variety with small, dense berries.^[13][3]

Related words

• ud
• strugure
• Latin ūva

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. auă
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. auă
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 14
5. ^ 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. auă
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 180
7. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 159
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9104
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 254
11. ^ 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. 60
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. aua
13. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 127