cerbar

Forms

cerbar m (plural cerbari)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian cerb (“stag”) + -ar, according to MDA2, and DELR lists it in the family of the noun for stag.^[2][3] Wiktionary also allows Latin cervārius (“of deer”), and Candrea–Densusianu derive it from a Latin noun made from that adjective.^[1][4] The Latin adjective is formed on cervus (“stag”) and is used by Pliny of a kind of wolf, perhaps the lynx.^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 has cerbar as a plant name, with German Hirschzunge “hart's tongue”.^[7] The beetle sense is first recorded in Marian's study of insects in folk belief, of 1903.^[2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

Both senses are regional and popular: the stag beetle, also called rădașcă, and the hart's-tongue fern, also called năvalnic.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1886 – cerbar “hart's-tongue fern” in Barcianu's dictionary.^[7]
• 1903 – cerbar “stag beetle” in Marian's Insectele.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional, popular) The stag beetle (Lucanus cervus), = rădașcă.^[2][1][4]
2. (regional, botany) The hart's-tongue fern (Phyllitis scolopendrium), = năvalnic.^[2][7]

Related words

• cerb
• Latin cervārius

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 361
3. ^ a b c 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. cerb
4. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic