ceară

Forms

ceară f (plural ceruri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cēra (“wax”).^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin word is related to Ancient Greek κηρός (kērós, “wax”) and may have been borrowed from Greek.^[2][7] It survives in Aromanian as tsearã, also “candle”, and in Istro-Romanian as čåra, which Kovačec marks as uncertain.^[2][8][9][6] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian kaira, Italian cera, French cire, Occitan cera, Catalan cera, Spanish cera and Portuguese cera.^[3][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and the DÉRom date the word to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520), in the sense “beeswax”.^[2][6] Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2's is Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581: „ca ceara muia-se” “it softened like wax”.^[5][4][11]

Semantic evolution

Beeswax, sold in cakes, was used for candles, modelling and polishing.^[11] A chronicle tells how Prince Duca levied honey and wax on the peasants, and a tax on wax, cerărit, is recorded from 1792.^[11][2] Ceară roșie or ceară tare is sealing wax.^[5][12] The word also names ear wax and a climbing plant with waxy flowers, Hoya carnosa.^[3][2] The sense “candle” is Aromanian, as in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.^[13]

Galben ca ceara means “deathly pale”.^[5] Derivatives include cerui “to wax” (c. 1650), cerar “wax chandler” (1671–1697) and ceros “waxy” (1871); cerumen (1857) came from French.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – ceară “wax” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][6]
• 16th century – ceară in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[5]
• 1581 – ceara in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[4]
• c. 1650 – cerui “to wax”.^[2]
• 1660 – ceară glossing Slavonic voskŭ in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1671–1697 – cerar “wax chandler”.^[2]
• 1792 – cerărit “tax on wax”.^[2]
• 1857 – cerumen “ear wax”, from French.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. wax: a natural or synthetic plastic substance, insoluble in water, that softens and melts at low temperatures: ceară de albine “beeswax”, ceară roșie “sealing wax”.^[12][1]
2. (in the plural ceruri) A kind of wax.^[12]
3. ceară de pământ: ozokerite, mineral wax.^[12]
4. Ear wax, cerumen.^[12][3]
5. (botany) The wax plant, Hoya carnosa.^[3][2]

Word family

• cerar
• cerat
• cerărie
• cerărit
• cerișoară
• ceriță
• ceriu
• ceros
• cerui
• ceruială

Related words

• cerumen
• Aromanian tsearã
• Latin cēra

Usage notes

The plural ceruri is used only for kinds of wax;^[12][4] MDA2 also notes a rare plural ceri.^[12][4] The spelling ceară is also a form of the verb cere “to ask”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. ceară
3. ^ 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. ceară
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 350
5. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ceară
6. ^ a b c d Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1821
11. ^ a b c 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. ceară
12. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 166
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 49
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
15. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro