boare

Forms

boare f (uncountable)^[1] A variant aboare occurs, and the plural bori is not used.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2] Most dictionaries hold that it is inherited from Latin boreās (“north wind”), which is from Ancient Greek βορέας (boréās).^[2][5][6][7] This is Densusianu's proposal, adopted by Pascu, Candrea, Graur in 1937, CADE, Scriban and Petrovici, and DELR calls it probable.^[2][8] The Latin word lives on as a wind or fog name in Venetian bora, Catalan boira “fog” and Old French boire, but the REW takes bură to be its Romanian reflex.^[2][9]

Ciorănescu objects that the word means “exhalation, heat” rather than “wind”, and that Boreas is a cold wind; he derives it from vapor (“steam”), accusative vapōrem, through a spoken *baporem assimilated to *baborem, which would give ⟨*băoare⟩ and then the present form.^[8] Diez and Cihac had proposed the same etymon, and Körting started from vaporeus.^[2][8] Pușcariu connected it with abur “steam”, which the REW accepts and Tiktin finds plausible;^[10] Ciorănescu rules this out on phonetic grounds, and the DA sees in it rather a reshaping of that word.^{[2][8][11][3]} Older views compared Bulgarian буря (burja, “storm”) (Cipariu) and an Old Germanic word like Old Norse byrr (“fair wind”) (Diculescu); Hasdeu and Russu made it a substrate word.^[2][8]

It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian boră “gale, storm”^[10] and Megleno-Romanian boari “wind, storm”, which Capidan compares with Bulgarian and Turkish forms of the Greek word.^[12][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in a Paraclis of 1639.^[2][4][11] In Dosoftei's verse psalter of 1673 it rhymes with răcoare and means “heat”: „Și nu-i nime să-i scape de boare, Să s-ascundă de dâns la răcoare” “and there is no one who escapes its heat, who hides from it in the cool”.^[11][8]

Semantic evolution

The older texts show a cluster of senses: “storm” in a Wallachian text of 1717,^[13] “heat” in Dosoftei, and “vapour, smell, fume”.^[3][4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 and the Lexicon of Buda of 1825 gloss it as Latin aura “breeze”, and the Buda authors derive it from Latin boreas.^[14][15] In the 19th-century poets, from Alecsandri to Coșbuc, it is a gentle, cool breeze of the morning or evening, the main sense today.^[3][16] The sense “scent, fragrance” is now figurative.^[5][1] In the Republic of Moldova boare de ploaie means a light drizzle.^[17]

The word has a small family: aburel “breeze” (1683) and the verbs abura “to blow (of the wind)” (1698) and aburi “to waft” (1705), which DELR derives from it or from aboare.^[2]

Timeline

• 1639 – first record, in a Paraclis.^[2][4][11]
• 1673 – “heat” in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[11][3]
• 1683 – the derivative aburel “breeze” in Dosoftei.^[2]
• 1717 – “storm” in a Wallachian text.^[13]
• 1801 – glossed Latin aura in Klein's dictionary.^[14]
• 1825 – bóre “breeze” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[15]
• 1887 – borilă, the name of a wind, in Hasdeu.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A gentle, pleasant breeze.^[5][4][1]
2. (figurative) A pleasant smell; fragrance, mireasmă.^[5][4]
3. (archaic) Vapour, exhalation; sultry heat; haze.^[4][3]
4. (archaic) A storm.^[4][13]

Word family

• abura
• aburel
• aburi
• borilă

Related words

• abur
• bură
• Aromanian boră

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. boare
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. boare
4. ^ 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, 219
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 109
6. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 85
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 180
8. ^ a b c d e f g 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. boare
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1219
10. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 216
11. ^ 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. boare
12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 42
13. ^ 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. 1, 77
14. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 315
15. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 62
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 252
17. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. boare