cărâie

Forms

cărâie f (plural cărâi)^[1]

Etymology

For Ciorănescu it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *carōnia (“carrion”), the source of Italian carogna, French charogne and Spanish carroña, which all mean “carcass”.^[2][3] The Vulgar Latin noun is formed on Latin carō (“flesh”).^[1] Wiktionary follows him.^[1]

Ciorănescu explains the sense from a secondary meaning “stinking, lazy”, as in Portuguese carronho, and by a likely confusion with râie “scabies”, which sounds almost the same; carroñar means “to infect with scab”.^[2] Wiktionary too allows that influence.^[1] The near-identical cârâie, with the same senses, is of unknown origin for Tiktin and MDA2.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The glossary of Muscel words by Rădulescu-Codin (1901) has cărîie for dirt on the skin and for mud.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In Argeș the regional word means filth or grime.^[7] The DA and Tiktin record cârâie from Delavrancea (1885) for the streaks that sweat leaves on the face and neck, and the DA cites the Muscel glossary for it too.^[8][4]

Timeline

• 1885 – the form cârâie “streaks of sweat” in Delavrancea.^[4][8]
• 1901 – cărîie “dirt on the skin; mud” in Rădulescu-Codin's Muscel glossary.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) grime: a mark left on the body by sweat and dirt; jeg.^[2][1]
2. (regional) Dirt, filth; mud.^[6][7]

Related words

• carne
• râie
• cârâie

Usage notes

MDA2 has cârâie as a rare popular word, with the extra phrase o cârâie de turtă (or de pâine) “a big flat loaf”.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. cărîie
3. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1707
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cârâie
5. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 341
6. ^ a b c Rădulescu-Codin, C. (1901), O seamă de cuvinte din Muscel, Câmpulung
7. ^ a b Constantinescu, Grigore; Constantinescu, Eugenia (2014), Glosar. Arealul etnocultural Argeș-Muscel
8. ^ a b 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. cârâie