dor

Forms

dor n (plural doruri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin dolus (“pain, grief”), a back-formation from doleō (“to feel pain”).^[2][3][1] DELR adds that ⟨dolus⟩ may have been remade from ⟨dolorum⟩, the genitive plural of dolor (“pain”).^[2] Pușcariu notes that the noun is often found in Latin inscriptions.^[4] Ciorănescu calls the derivation from ⟨dolor⟩ by Cipariu and G. Meyer an error.^[5] Șăineanu still gave ⟨dolor⟩.^[6]

The word survives in Aromanian dor and Megleno-Romanian dor.^[5][7][8] The Aromanian word also means "pain", and the Megleno-Romanian one means only "pain".^[4][9][8] It is found across the Romance languages: Italian duolo, Sardinian dolu, French deuil, Occitan dol, Spanish duelo and Portuguese dó.^[5][4][10] Gabinschi groups it with doliu as a pair of doublets.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and MDA2 date the first record to 1574, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[2][12] There the word still means bodily pain: the Gospel tells how he healed „toate boalele şi toate dorurile den oameni” “all the diseases and all the pains of the people”.^[13] Tiktin's first record is the Palia of 1581–1582 (Genesis 24:67), in the sense “grief”.^[14]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense, physical pain, lives on in popular speech, especially in Oltenia and Muntenia: dor de cap "headache", dor de inimă "stomach ache", dor de măsele "toothache".^[13][14][15] Folk charms drive the dor out of the head.^[13] Regional glossaries of Muscel and of the Graiul nostru collection still give it as "pain".^[16][17]

Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints has a parent lament „Mare doru-mi-i” "great is my grief", having buried both children that day.^[14] Grief for what is absent became longing, the main modern sense: dor de țară "homesickness", mi-e dor de cineva "I miss someone".^[14][3] Further senses are love-longing, erotic desire and a craving for food or drink.^[12][3] In Maramureș folk poetry dorul is personified, like the zburător.^[18]

The verb dori "to wish, desire" is recorded even before the noun, from about 1500.^[2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glossed dor with Latin desiderium.^[19] The Lexicon of Buda even derived the noun from desiderium, a view of its time.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – the verb dori in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• 1574 – dor “pain” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record of the noun.^[2][12][13]
• 1581–1582 – in the Palia (Genesis 24:67).^[14]
• c. 1660 – dorul glosses Slavonic сладострастие “voluptuousness” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[21]
• 1682 – the derivatives dorință “wish” and doritor “desirous” in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[2]
• 1801 – dor “longing” in Klein's dictionary.^[19]
• 1851 – doritiv as a grammatical term for the optative.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. longing, nostalgia: a strong wish to see again someone or something dear, or to return to a favourite occupation: Mi-e dor de casă.^[3][12][1]
2. The state of someone who yearns or strives for something, a desire.^[3]
3. The pain of love for someone far away.^[3][12]
4. (popular) Bodily pain: dor de cap “headache”.^[3][13]
5. An appetite or craving for some food or drink.^[3][22]
6. Erotic attraction.^[3]

Word family

• dori
• dorință
• dornic
• doruț
• dorit
• doritor
• nedorit

Related words

• durea
• durere
• doliu
• Aromanian dor
• Latin doleō

Usage notes

Cu dor means “tenderly” or “passionately”, and în dorul lelii “aimlessly, at random”.^[3] The adverb dor “only” is a variant of doar, not this word.^[12][15]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. dor
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 328
4. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 47
5. ^ a b c 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. dor
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 218
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 411
8. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 230
9. ^ 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, 78
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2727
11. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 97
12. ^ 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, 746
13. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dor
14. ^ 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. dor
15. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 443
16. ^ Rădulescu-Codin, C. (1901), O seamă de cuvinte din Muscel, Câmpulung, p. 27
17. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov.; Speranția, Th. D. (1906–1908), Graiul nostru. Texte din toate părțile locuite de români, 2 vols., București: Socec, p. 201
18. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. dor
19. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 354
20. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 195
21. ^ 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. dorul
22. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. dor