caier

Forms

caier n (plural caiere)^[1] MDA2 records the variant caer.^[2] Besides the plural caiere a plural caieri is recorded.^[3]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[4] The most widely accepted explanation is inherited from Vulgar Latin *caiulus, a diminutive reconstructed from caia (“stick, cudgel”), proposed by Densusianu and Giuglea and accepted by DEX, Tiktin's third edition and Papahagi.^[4][5][6][7] Scriban compares baier from baiulus, and the Gascon and Spanish words for a staff, Spanish cayado among them.^[7] Ciorănescu objects that this confuses the bundle of fibre with the distaff it is wound on.^[8]

The other proposals are many.^[4] Pușcariu and the DA took it from Vulgar Latin *carium, from careō (“to card wool”).^[3][4] Ciorănescu reconstructs *calērus, the form behind galērus (“fur cap”), with an original sense “tuft of hair”, comparing caliendrum (“tall head-dress of false hair”) and Ancient Greek κάλλυντρον (kálluntron).^[8] Pascu started from Ancient Greek καῖρος (kaîros, “thread of the warp”).^[8][4] Miklosich and Cihac proposed a Slavonic word for “curly”, which Ciorănescu rejects.^[8] Tiktin's first edition called it of unknown origin.^[4]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian cair, Megleno-Romanian cair and Istro-Romanian cåier.^{[8][4][9][10][11]}

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the articled form caierul in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.St. of about 1660–1670, where it glosses a Slavonic word for flax or tow.^[12] DELR and MDA2 date the word to 1682, in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints, where it is a bundle of tow (fuior).^[4][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the amount of wool, hemp, flax or silk tied onto the distaff for spinning by hand; a caier of wool, the DA notes, could be made of canură or miezură.^[3][6] By extension it can name the distaff itself.^[3][2] Jokingly it means a head of hair, as in the threat „te-oi înșfăca de caier” “I'll grab you by the hair”.^[3][13] Poets use it for silky strands: Alecsandri compares golden hair to the silk on a maize cob.^[5]

From the sense “hair” came the verb încăiera “to come to blows”, first “to grab each other by the hair”, recorded from 1820; the DA thought instead of a Latin *incavellare “to put in a cage”.^[4][8]

Timeline

• c. 1660–1670 – caierul in the lexicon Lex.St., the first record.^[12]
• 1682 – caer in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[4][2]
• 1820 – încăiera “to come to blows”.^[4]
• 1825 – descăiera “to separate people fighting”.^[4]
• 1871 – the diminutive căierel.^[4]
• 1876–1887 – încăierătură “brawl”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) a bundle of wool, flax, hemp or silk placed on the distaff to be spun by hand: Bunica torcea un caier de lână albă. “Grandmother was spinning a bundle of white wool.”^[6][2]
2. (popular) the distaff itself.^[2][3]
3. (colloquial, jocular) thick hair.^[2][3]
4. (popular, by extension) a brawl.^[2]

Word family

• căierel
• descăiera
• încăiera
• încăierătură

Related words

• cânepă
• fuior
• Aromanian cair

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 275
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. caier
4. ^ 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. caier
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. caier
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 132
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 216
8. ^ a b c d e f 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. caier
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 238
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 54
11. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
12. ^ a b 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. caierul
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 90