baieră

Forms

baieră f (plural băieri)^[1] The neuter variant baier is common in the old texts: „având cruce în baier la piept” “having a cross on a string at the breast”, in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[2] Regional variants are bair in the mountains of Suceava, baior in Sălaj, baiur and bairă.^[3][4][5] The plural is băieri, and also baiere, the form of the Palia de la Orăștie (1582).^[6][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bāiulus (“porter, carrier”), or its feminine bāiula, which in Late Latin was also an adjective “carrying”.^[4][6][5][1] DELR suggests a neuter Vulgar Latin *bāiulum “thing that holds something up”, and the DA derives such nouns “thing that carries” directly from a Latin verb meaning “to carry”.^[4] The shift of sense is only apparent, Candrea explained: the string of a purse or a bucket is what bears its weight.^[3] The origin of the Latin word is unknown; de Vaan considers a borrowing from Germanic or from Celtic.^[7][8]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian bair, Megleno-Romanian baiăr and Istro-Romanian båier.^[4][9] Other Romance languages inherited the feminine as Romansh baila (“short thick rope”) and as words for a nurse, such as Italian balia and Old French baille.^[4][3][10] Candrea–Densusianu explain the ⟨ie⟩ of the Romanian form by the influence of the verb îmbăiera “to tie with strings”.^[3] Tiktin also cites a comparison with Italian bavero (“collar”), which would lead back to the family of bale “slobber”, and the Latin derivation of CADE.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record of baier to about 1580;^[11][5] DELR gives the plural baiere in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1582.^[2][4] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses baier for a Slavonic word for a bundle tied on, and MDA2 dates the feminine to the Moldavian law code of 1652.^[11][5] The sense was the strap or cord by which a thing is carried, hung or fastened.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The DA starts from the sense “what carries a load”, kept only in the narrower meaning of the strap of a bag, flask, bucket or purse.^[12] From it came the cord that ties a shirt, a coat or the mouth of a sack, and in Transylvania a necklace; the cord on which a cross or charm is hung gave the old regional sense “amulet”.^[4][2][13] The phrase băierile inimii “the strings of the heart”, the heart valves in popular speech, gave idioms of deep feeling: a i se rupe băierile inimii “to feel great grief” and a ofta din băierile inimii “to sigh from the bottom of the heart”.^[14][6] The purse strings gave a strânge băierile pungii “to economize” and a avea nouă băieri la pungă “to be a miser”.^[6][5]

Romanian formed îmbăiera “to tie with strings” by the 17th century, and later băieruță and dezbăiera (both 1825).^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1580 – baier, the first record.^[2]
• 1582 – the plural baiere in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[4]
• 17th century – îmbăiera “to tie with strings” in a historical Palia.^[4]
• 1649 – baier in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1652 – baieră in the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu.^[5]
• 1825 – băieruță and dezbăiera in the Lexicon of Buda.^[4]
• 1857 – îmbăierătură.^[4]
• 1906 – the diminutive băierel.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strap, cord or string sewn or fixed to an object so that it can be carried, hung up or tied: Și-a pus traista cu baierele pe umăr.^[6][5][1]
2. A tie or drawstring that closes a shirt, a coat or a purse.^[15][2]
3. (Transylvania) A necklace.^[4]
4. (dated, regional) An amulet worn on a string.^[4][2]
5. (popular, in the plural) băierile inimii: the valves of the heart, the depths of the heart.^[14][13]

Word family

• băierel
• băieri
• băierit
• băieruță
• dezbăiera
• îmbăiera
• îmbăierătură

Related words

• băiat
• Aromanian bair
• Latin baiulus

Usage notes

Fixed expressions include a strânge băierile pungii “to economize”, a avea nouă băieri la pungă “to be a miser”, a-și dezlega băierile inimii “to open one's heart” and a striga din băierile inimii “to shout with all one's strength”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. baier
3. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 22
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q 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. baieră
5. ^ 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, 157
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 85
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. 69
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. bāiulus
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 190
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 886
11. ^ a b c 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. baier
12. ^ 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. baier
13. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 145
14. ^ a b Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. baieră
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 187