bour

Forms

bour m (plural bouri)^[1] Old and regional variants are buăr, boăr, buor, boar, bohor and bor.^[2][3] The Pravila of Vasile Lupu has buăr: „cap de buăr” “aurochs' head”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin būbalus (“wild ox, buffalo”), from Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos, “antelope, wild ox”).^[3][5][6][1] Romanian alone keeps the form with /b/; the other Romance languages continue the variant būfalus, as Italian bufalo.^[3][7] The Latin word had already changed in Late Latin: a gloss has bobulum for a wild beast with great horns, and a confusion with bubulus (“of oxen”) may have helped the two animals, bou and bour, to be named alike.^[5][1] Cipariu took it from bōs (“ox”) and ūrus (“aurochs”), a view Ciorănescu reports.^[5] Wiktionary compares Albanian buall, and Ciorănescu and Pușcariu compare Old French bugle and Spanish búbalo.^[1][5][6] It is a doublet of bivol, which came through Slavic.^[1][7]

Candrea and Densusianu describe the sound history: ⟨buăr⟩ became ⟨boor⟩ and then bour, as ⟨nuăr⟩ became nour.^[8] The word should have been contracted further to ⟨bor⟩, as nour to nor, but the change stopped when the animal disappeared; only around Mediaș does ⟨bor⟩ live on, meaning “snail”.^[8][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of 1479: the form buor in a document, for the arms of Moldavia.^[3][9] Its derivatives appear earlier as names: the personal name Buorean in 1454 and the river name Buorel in 1483.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the aurochs, the wild ox that once lived in the Moldavian mountains.^[10][9] Tiktin notes that in this sense it belongs to the legend of Dragoș, who followed an aurochs into Moldavia and took its head for the country's arms; the chronicler Nicolae Costin wondered whether the beast was in fact a zimbru, the word later used for it.^[9]

From the arms, bour passed to the brand with an ox head burnt on criminals, cattle, measures and boundary marks, then to any official mark, and to a tax on wine paid for the stamping of the barrels.^[9][2] The curved horns gave the senses “front of a sled runner” and “prow of a boat”, and adjectival coarne boure “horns turned towards each other”.^[2][3] Dosoftei's Psalter has „nu vă rădicareț coarne buori” “lift not up your horns high” (Psalm 74:13).^[9] In Transylvania the form bor means “snail”, from its horns.^[2][8]

Timeline

• 1454 – the personal name Buorean, the first record of the derivative bourean.^[3]
• 1479 – buor for the Moldavian arms, the first record of the word.^[3][9]
• 1483 – the river name Buorel.^[3]
• 1644 – boor as a boundary mark on a tree, in a document.^[9]
• 1705 – the verbs buăra and buări in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[3]
• 1742 – buorar, the official who collected the wine tax.^[3]
• 1936 – bouroaică “female aurochs” in Sadoveanu.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The aurochs, the extinct wild bull held to be the ancestor of domestic cattle (Bos primigenius).^[10][2][1]
2. The old coat of arms of Moldavia, an aurochs' head.^[10][1]
3. (dated) A branding iron used to mark cattle, boundary stones and criminals; the mark itself.^[10][2]
4. (dated, Moldavia) A tax on wine, paid for the stamping of the barrels.^[2][3]
5. The front of a sled runner, curved upwards.^[11][2]
6. (regional, Transylvania, in the form bor) A snail, a melc.^[2][3]

Word family

• bourean
• bourel
• bouresc
• bouri
• bouriu
• bouroaică
• boriță
• îmboura

Related words

• bou
• bivol
• zimbru
• Latin būbalus

Usage notes

Tiktin records a separate bour “drill” (plural boure), from German Bohrer, in an 1880 official text.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 238
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. bour
4. ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 81
5. ^ 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. bour
6. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 18
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1351
8. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. bour
9. ^ 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. bour
10. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 115
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. bour
12. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bour 2