auriu

Forms

auriu m or n (feminine singular aurie, plural aurii)^[1] Folk poetry has the variant dauriu, as in a song quoted by the DA: „Gălbinașii daurii / Cu fetițele din Jii” “the golden ducats, with the girls from the Jiu”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian aur + -iu, from the word for “gold” with the adjective suffix of colours.^{[4][5][2][1][6]} Aur itself is from Latin aurum (“gold”), a word kept across Romance.^[7][8] Cihac took the adjective from a Latin *aurivus, which he set up beside aureus (“golden”), but the later dictionaries treat it as a Romanian formation.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1837, in Anton Pann, in the sense “of the colour of gold”.^[7][6] The DA's first quotation, from Pann, describes golden hair: perii din cap aurii.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the colour of gold the word passed to things that shine like gold, blond hair, ripe wheat and ruddy fruit.^[4] The DA notes that it is used figuratively above all of hair, and records a figurative sense “golden, happy”, as in anii aurii ai copilăriei “the golden years of childhood”.^[2] The DLRLC adds “beautiful, splendid”, as in visuri aurii “golden dreams”.^[10]

Used as a feminine noun it names a grape variety, recorded by Baronzi in 1872.^[2][4] As a neuter noun, auriul is the golden colour itself.^[4][10] Damé's dictionary has cal auriu for a dun or isabelline horse.^[11]

Timeline

• 1837 – first record, in Anton Pann.^[7][6]
• 1870 – Costinescu's dictionary glosses it with French doré.^[12]
• 1872 – aurie, a grape variety, in Baronzi.^[2][4]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it in German as “gold-yellow, gold-coloured”.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the colour of gold, golden; shining like gold.^[5][4]
2. Of hair, blond; of wheat, ripe; of fruit, ruddy.^[4]
3. (figurative) Beautiful, splendid, happy: visuri aurii.^[10][2]

Noun

1. The colour of gold.^[4]
2. (feminine) A grape variety.^[2][4]

Related words

• auri
• aurit
• aurel

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. auriu
3. ^ Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. auriu
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 130
5. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 74
6. ^ 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. auriu
7. ^ a b c 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. aur
8. ^ 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. aur
9. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 20
10. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 167
11. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. auriu
12. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 84
13. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 44