căprină

Forms

căprină f (plural căprine)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin caprīna, the feminine of caprīnus (“of goats”).^[2][3][1][4] DELR compares the Italian, Old French and Occitan continuations of the Latin word.^[2] The REW lists Italian caprina “goat dung”.^[4]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian cãprinã means “goat hair” or “goat's wool”, and the Megleno-Romanian word means “goat's wool”.^[5][6][4] Romanian applied it to a sheep whose wool looks like goat hair.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is a place name of 1425.^[2] MDA2 first finds the common noun in the answers to Hasdeu's linguistic questionnaire of 1884–1885, for a sheep with long, straight wool.^[3]

Timeline

• 1425 – a place name, the first record.^[2]
• 1884–1885 – căprină “sheep with long, straight wool” in the answers to Hasdeu's questionnaire.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, obsolete) A sheep with long, straight wool, like goat hair.^[3][2][1]

Related words

• capră
• căprar
• căprior
• Aromanian cãprinã

Usage notes

A different word spelled căprină is a variant of coprină “narcissus”, recorded from 1822 in Muntenia;^[3] Tiktin compares it with a Slavic word for “silk”.^[7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. căprină
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 327
4. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1654
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. căprină