cireașă

Forms

cireașă f (plural cireșe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin ceresia (“cherries”), the later Latin form of cerasia, the plural of cerasium (“cherry”), which is from Ancient Greek κεράσιον (kerásion, “cherry”).^[2][3][4][1] The forms with ⟨e⟩ in the middle syllable are recorded in Late Latin and continue in most Romance languages.^[2] Scriban alone derived it from cerasa, the plural of cerasum.^[2] The Greek word comes from κερασός (kerasós, “bird cherry”), possibly of Anatolian origin.^[1]

The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian cireașe and Megleno-Romanian cireașă.^[5][6][2] Their initial /tʃ/ in place of the expected /ts/ comes from assimilation to the following /ʃ/.^[2] The Romance cognates include Italian ciliegia, Occitan cereiza, French cerise, Spanish cereza and Portuguese cereja; compare also Albanian kjèrši.^[3][7] Ciorănescu holds that Bulgarian череша (čereša) was borrowed from Romanian;^[3] Conev had wrongly taken it as the source of the Romanian word, and Mladenov derived it straight from Latin.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The tree name comes first: cireș is recorded as a place name in 1401, and the place name Cerașani in 1475.^[2][8] The fruit name itself first appears about 1634, as a personal name in a Wallachian document.^[2][8] MDA2's first record of the word as a common noun is the Latin–Romanian glossary of Caransebeș, before 1708.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept the sense “cherry”, the fruit of the cireș tree, and names many cultivated and wild varieties, among them bitter, grafted and sweet cherries.^[4][8] Plant names were formed with it: cireașa-lupului “wolf's cherry” is deadly nightshade.^[8][4] DELR also records a rare popular sense “menstruation”, found in the phrase a avea trei cireșe.^[2][4]

The variants with -ra- (cerașă, cirașă) Graur explained by a hard pronunciation of /r/;^[2][8] Tiktin argued that the a was not original, since the tree is cireș and never *ciraș.^[2][8] The variant ciureașă shows the frequent exchange of the first syllables ce-, ci- with cio-, ciu-.^[2] From the fruit Romanian formed cireșar “cherry seller” and “June”, the month the cherries ripen, and cireșiu “cherry-coloured”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1401 – cireș “cherry tree” as a place name.^[2]
• 1400–1418 – the diminutive cireșel as a place name.^[2]
• 1475 – the place name Cerașani.^[8]
• c. 1634 – cireașă as a personal name in a Wallachian document, the first record of the word.^[2][8]
• before 1708 – cireașă “cherry” in the Latin–Romanian glossary of Caransebeș.^[4]
• 1825 – cireșar “cherry seller;^[2] June”.^[2]
• 1847 – cireșel “June”.^[2]
• 1871 – the diminutive cireșea and the adjective cireșiu “cherry-red”.^[2]
• 1890 – the diminutive cireșică.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Cherry: the small, round, fleshy red or yellow fruit of the cherry tree (cireș), sweet or bitter.^[9][4][1]
2. (popular, rare) Menstruation, in the phrase a avea trei cireșe.^[2][4]

Word family

• cireș
• cireșar
• cireșea
• cireșel
• cireșică
• cireșiu

Related words

• Aromanian cireașe
• Latin cerasium

Usage notes

The plural is cireșe or, in popular use, cireși.^[9][4] Cireașa-lupului is the regional name of deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), also called mătrăgună.^[4][8] A privi la cineva ca la o cireașă coaptă means to look at someone with great admiration and desire.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u 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. cireașă
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. cireașă
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 413
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 361
6. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 155
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1823
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. cireașă
9. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 188