cârneleagă

Forms

cârneleagă f (plural cârnelegi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin carnem ligat (“it binds the meat”), a phrase formed on carō (“meat”) and ligō (“to bind”).^[2][3][4][1] The verb has the sense “forbid”, as Romanian lega does, against dezlega “allow”: Candrea and Densusianu read “the time when people bind themselves not to eat meat”.^[5][6][2] Tiktin, Ciorănescu and the DA read the imperative instead, ⟨carnem liga⟩ “stop eating meat!”.^[2][7][5] Scriban took it as a Romanian compound of carne and the verb “binds”.^[2][8] Laurian and Massim saw lege in the second element, and the DA held that no fully convincing explanation had yet been given.^[5]

Aromanian has cãrleagã, the time and above all the day when people bind themselves to eat no more meat.^[9][10][2] The formation recalls Italian carnevale, from carnelevare, from carnem levāre (“to take away meat”).^[2][9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and DELR date the first record to 1551–1553, in a heading of a text Tiktin cites as ES.^[7][2] A Maramureș document of 1772 says that the ploughs went out în săptămâna cârnelegi “in cârneleagă week”.^[11] MDA2's first source is Laurian and Massim's dictionary (1871).^[4]

Semantic evolution

Tiktin thought the word first named the last day of the meat week before the fast, as carnevale and German Fastnacht first named the eve of Lent and then the whole carnival;^[7] Aromanian cârleagă still names the last day of meat-eating.^[7] The sense varies by region: the last day of the meat-eating season, the last week of carnival, the meat week, the third-last week of the winter season, the whole winter carnival, and even the last week of Lent.^[5][12] In Moldavia and Bucovina it is the meat week; in Muntenia and Transylvania the plural cârnelegi means the winter carnival, the same as câșlegi.^[12][7] Ciorănescu glosses it as the Tuesday of that week, and the carnival.^[6] The standard dictionaries define the third-last week of the Christmas meat-eating season, when meat may be eaten on Wednesday and Friday.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – cârneleagă in a heading, the first record.^[7][2]
• 1772 – săptămâna cârnelegi in a Maramureș document.^[11]
• 1871 – in Laurian and Massim's dictionary, MDA2's first source.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Orthodox Church, usually in the plural) The third-last week of the meat-eating period after Christmas, when the faithful may eat meat on Wednesday and Friday.^[3][4]
2. (regional) The meat-eating time before a fast; in the plural, the winter carnival, câșlegi.^[12][13]
3. (regional) The last week of Lent.^[4][5]

Related words

• câșlegi
• carne
• lega
• Aromanian cãrleagã

Usage notes

Regional forms are cârnileagă, cârleagă and the plural cârneligi.^[4][2] The proverb fasole cu teci în cârnelegi “green beans at carnival” is said of a word spoken in the right place.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c 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” (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. cârneleagă
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 164
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 345
5. ^ 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. cârneleagă
6. ^ a b 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. carne
7. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cârneleagă
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 297
9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 290
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 264
11. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. cârneleagă
12. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. cîrneleagă
13. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. cârneleagă