corb

Forms

corb m (plural corbi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin corvus (“raven”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin /rv/ gave /rb/ here, as in the variant corbus that Candrea and Densusianu and Papahagi give and in Old Italian corbo.^[6][7][8] The Latin word is imitative, like cornīx (“crow”);^[9][1] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *ḱorh₂wós, while de Vaan finds no good match for its formation outside Italic.^[9][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian corbu, Megleno-Romanian corb and Istro-Romanian corb.^{[3][2][7][10][11]} Its Romance cognates include Italian corvo, Occitan corp, Catalan corb, Spanish cuervo and Portuguese corvo.^[3][12] Ciorănescu derives a Greek dialect word Modern Greek κόρμπου (kórbou) “black” from Romanian, and probably Albanian korp “raven” too, which other sources only compare.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Transylvanian place name, Korbul, of 1444.^[2][5] In Romanian texts it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century), as corbul in Psalm 101:7.^[4][13]

Semantic evolution

Besides the bird, the word names a dark sea fish, the brown meagre, a variety of black grapes and, with the article, the constellation Corvus.^[2][14] From the colour of the bird it is used as an adjective, “jet black”, first recorded in Delavrancea (1885); negru ca pana corbului “black as a raven's feather” is the usual phrase.^[4][5] It was also a nickname for Roma, and for black horses and dogs.^[3][4] In Aromanian corbu also means “unfortunate”.^[7][15]

Zilele corbului “the raven's days”, 19–24 March, are the cold days when, as the saying goes, the raven's eggs crack from the frost.^[5][4] The proverb corb la corb nu scoate ochii “a raven does not peck out a raven's eyes” says that rogues do not harm one another.^[5][16] DELR dates a large family of derivatives: corbiș “like ravens” (1800–1812), corbișor (1853), coarbă “female raven; black goat or mare” (1883), corban “very black” and corbească, a black grape (1885).^[2]

Timeline

• 1444 – the Transylvanian place name Korbul, the first record.^[2][5]
• c. 1500–1520 – corbul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][13]
• c. 1551–1558 – corbilor “of the ravens” in the Voroneț psalter.^[17]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[18]
• 1800–1812 – the adverb corbiș in Budai-Deleanu.^[2]
• 1853 – the diminutive corbișor.^[2]
• 1883 – coarbă “female raven”.^[2]
• 1885 – the adjective corb “jet black” in Delavrancea.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. raven: a large black bird of the crow family, larger than the crow, with a strong beak and feet (Corvus corax); negru ca corbul “jet black”.^[14][1]
2. In compounds: corb-albastru “roller” (dumbrăveancă), corb-de-mare “cormorant”, corb-de-noapte “night heron”.^[14]
3. A sea fish with a large head and blunt snout, brown in colour, the brown meagre (Corvina nigra).^[14][1]
4. (with the article, Corbul) A constellation of the southern sky, Corvus.^[14]
5. A variety of black grape.^[3][2]

Adjective

1. Jet black.^[4]

Word family

• coarbă
• corbăia
• corbească
• corbișor
• corbiță
• corbiu
• corboaică
• corbos
• corbuleț
• corbușor
• corban

Related words

• corvid
• Aromanian corbu
• Latin corvus

Usage notes

The old vocative was coarbe (Cantemir), now rare beside corbule.^[5][19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. corb
3. ^ 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. corb
4. ^ 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, 507
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. corb
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ a b c Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 306
8. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 34
9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 100
12. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2269
13. ^ a b 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, p. Ps 101:7
14. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 235
15. ^ 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, p. 1, 69
16. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. corb
17. ^ 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, p. Ps 146:10
18. ^ 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. corb
19. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 347