bou

Forms

bou m (plural boi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *bovus (“ox”), a popular Latin form made on the oblique stem of bōs (accusative bovem).^[2][3][4][5] DELR points to the form Late Latin bobus in the Mulomedicina Chironis as evidence for it.^[3] Wiktionary takes the word from the accusative itself, possibly through the popular form.^[1] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cattle”).^[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian bou, Megleno-Romanian bou and Istro-Romanian bowu.^{[2][6][7][8][9]} It is pan-Romance: Italian bove, French bœuf, Spanish buey, Portuguese boi, Catalan bou.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name of 1235.^[3][10] As a common noun it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where boii “the oxen” are among the beasts given into man's hand (Psalm 8:7).^[11][3] MDA2 dates its first record to Coresi's psalter of 1577.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, the castrated bull kept for draught and meat, has been the main one throughout.^[5][12] Because the ox stood for slow, heavy work, many idioms grew up around it: a merge cu boii “to go very slowly”, a munci ca un bou “to work like a horse”, and a-și băga boii în jug cu cineva “to join forces with someone”.^[10][4] A nu-i fi toți boii acasă “not to be in good spirits” is used of mental unease as well.^[10]

The word became an insult for a stupid man, a sense Aromanian shares.^[2][5][6] Compounds name other animals: bou-de-baltă for a toad, the bittern and a water beetle, boul-lui-Dumnezeu for the stag beetle or the ladybird, and bou-de-mare for a sea fish.^[5] The family grew from the 16th century on: boulean and bouleț “young ox” in 1588, and bouar “oxherd” in 1612, which DELR derives from Latin boārius.^[3]

Timeline

• 1235 – a personal name, the first record.^[3][10]
• c. 1500-1520 – boii “the oxen” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11][3]
• 1577 – bou in Coresi's psalter.^[4]
• 1588 – the diminutives boulean and bouleț.^[3]
• 1612 – bouar “oxherd”, in the form boar.^[3]
• 1649 – boilor “of the oxen” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1852 – the diminutive boișor.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ox: a castrated bull, used for draught and above all for meat (Bos taurus).^[5][4]
2. (colloquial, offensive) A stupid man, an idiot.^[5][1]
3. In compounds, names of other animals: bou-de-baltă “fire-bellied toad; bittern”, bou-de-noapte “owl”, boul-lui-Dumnezeu “stag beetle; ladybird”.^[5]

Word family

• boiastră
• boișor
• bouar
• boulean
• bouleț
• bourel
• boușor
• bouț

Related words

• boar
• bovin
• bour
• Aromanian bou
• Latin bōs

Usage notes

The plural is boi.^[1] S-a dus bou și s-a întors vacă is said of someone who came back from his studies no wiser, and a scoate pe cineva din boii lui means “to make someone lose his temper”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. bou
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. bou
4. ^ 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, 237
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. 115
6. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 53
7. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 91
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 43
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 197
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bou
11. ^ 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 8:7
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. bou
13. ^ 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. boilor