berbec

Forms

berbec m (plural berbeci)^[1] The variant berbece is as old and was about as common; the DA took it as the basic form.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin berbēx (“wether, ram”), the popular form of Latin vervēx, from its accusative berbēcem.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian birbec, Megleno-Romanian birbęți and Istro-Romanian birbęțe.^[2][3][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian berbice, Occitan berbitz and French brebis.^[2][6]

The origin of the Latin word is uncertain: it has been connected with Proto-Indo-European *wr̥h₁ḗn (“lamb”), but de Vaan finds the derivation hard to explain.^[9][1]

The word passed into Hungarian berbécs, recorded as a personal name in 1423.^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the personal name Berbece in a document of 1443.^[3][4] As a common noun it appears in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, where berbecii are the rams that the mountains skip like (Psalm 113:4).^[3][12]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is the male sheep.^[5][4] From the way rams butt each other came the battering ram of ancient and medieval sieges, and then the heavy weight that drives piles or breaks up iron.^[5][13] The constellation and sign of the zodiac Aries is Berbecul.^[5][14] A children's game of mock fighting was called de-a berbecele.^[14][4]

The family grew from early on: the shepherd berbecar is a place name in 1649, the verb berbeca “to butt” is recorded in 1862.^[3] Ciorănescu and DELR note that berbecar may continue vervēcārius or be a Romanian formation.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1443 – Berbece, a personal name, the first Romanian record.^[3][4]
• c. 1500–1520 – berbecii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][12]
• 1649 – berbecar “shepherd of rams” as a place name.^[3]
• 1834 – berbecărie “flock of rams”.^[3]
• 1862 – the verb berbeca “to butt”.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ram, the male of the sheep.^[5][14]
2. Berbecul: the constellation Aries and the sign of the zodiac.^[5][14]
3. A battering ram, the war machine once used to break walls and gates.^[5][14]
4. A heavy weight, worked by machine or by hand, that drives piles or breaks up large pieces of cast iron by falling on them.^[5]

Word family

• berbecar
• berbecat
• berbecărie
• berbecel
• berbecesc
• berbecește
• berbecică
• berbecuț
• îmberbeca
• berbeleac

Related words

• Aromanian birbec
• Latin vervēx

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. berbec
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. berbec
4. ^ 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. berbec
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 100
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9270
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 208
8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 82
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. vervex
10. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 1, 281
11. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 113:4
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 228
14. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 197