crab

Forms

crab m (plural crabi)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French crabe.^[2][3][4][1] The French word came with the fishermen of the North Sea, by two routes: in Normandy from Old Norse krabbi, in Picardy and Wallonia from Middle Dutch crabbe, which explains its early hesitation between masculine and feminine.^[2][5] Both go back to Proto-Germanic *krabbô, and the English word crab is a cognate.^[1] Scriban derived it instead from Latin cārabus and Ancient Greek κάραβος (kárabos);^[6][5] DHLF notes that the French descendant of the Latin word, carabe, came to name a beetle.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Stamati's dictionary of 1852, for the sea crustacean.^[2][4] In 1875 Antonescu's French–Romanian dictionary gives the form crabu for French crabe.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its single zoological sense.^[3] In Ion Ghica's letters it appears among the foods of the coast: „Peştele proaspăt şi sărat, stacojii şi crabii, sânt un mare ajutor la hrana locuitorilor” “fresh and salted fish, lobsters and crabs are a great help in feeding the inhabitants”.^[8][9] Delavrancea has children asking fishermen whether they caught „raci, crabi și stele de mare” “crayfish, crabs and starfish”.^[4][8] DN extends the name to some freshwater species.^[10]

Timeline

• 1852 – in Stamati's dictionary, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1875 – crabu in Antonescu's dictionary.^[7]
• 1887 – in Ion Ghica's letters to Alecsandri, MDA2's first record.^[9][8]
• 1929 – Șăineanu notes the many edible species.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A crab: any of several sea crustaceans with ten legs and a short abdomen folded under the broad, flat cephalothorax; best known is a Black Sea species with tasty flesh (Carcinus maenas): Pescarii au prins câțiva crabi. “The fishermen caught a few crabs.”^[3][9]

Related words

• rac
• French crabe

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. crab
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 245
4. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. crab
5. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 360
7. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 40
8. ^ 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. crab
9. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 535
10. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. crab
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 174