făinos

Forms

făinos m or n (feminine singular făinoasă, masculine plural făinoși, feminine/neuter plural făinoase)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin farīnōsus (“floury”), an adjective of Late and Vulgar Latin made from farīna (“flour, meal”).^[1][2][3][4] The Latin noun goes back to far (“a kind of grain, emmer”).^[1][5] Ciorănescu lists the adjective among the derivatives of făină, but notes that Pușcariu and the DA take it straight from Latin.^[6] Scriban allows both, a Romanian formation on făină or the Latin word, and CADE takes it from Latin, remade after făină.^[7][8] MDA2 also derives it from the Latin adjective and compares făină.^[4]

The regional forms fărinos and făninos keep the stages through which the Latin noun became făină, by assimilation and dissimilation of /r/ and /n/.^[2][6] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian fãrinos.^[9][10] The DA compares Sardinian farinosu, French farineux, Spanish harinoso and Portuguese farinhoso, all with the same sense.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825.^[4][11] The DA cites the Lexicon for the form fărinos, with the sense “floury, containing flour”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the adjective as covering at once what German splits into mehlhaltig, mehlartig and mehlig: containing flour, covered with flour, and like flour in look, smell or texture.^[2] Donici applied it to powdery snow: „Pe uliți scârție omătul făinos” “in the streets the powdery snow creaks”.^[11][2] Costinescu recorded its use for fruit that has lost its juice and turned mealy.^[2]

Used as a feminine plural noun, făinoase meant pastries and other dishes made with flour, a rare Transylvanian use recorded by Barcianu.^[2][4] In the modern language the phrase paste făinoase names pasta, foods made of flour and water, sometimes with eggs.^[3][12]

Timeline

• 1825 – first recorded, in the Lexicon de la Buda, also as fărinos.^[4][2]
• 1870 – Costinescu records the sense “mealy, without juice” of fruit.^[2]
• 1886 – Barcianu gives the plural noun făinoase “dishes made of flour”.^[2]
• 1954 – paste făinoase “pasta” in the newspaper Scînteia.^[12]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Having the look or consistency of flour; floury, mealy.^[3][1]
2. Of fruit: without juice, dry and mealy;^[3][4] mălăieț.^[3][4]
3. Made from flour; in paste făinoase (also as a feminine plural noun, făinoase): pasta, foods made of flour, water and sometimes eggs.^[3][13]

Related words

• făină
• Aromanian fãrinos
• Latin farīna

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 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. făinos
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 384
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 883
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b 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. făină
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 496
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. făinos
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 452
10. ^ 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, 84
11. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. făinos
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 268
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. făinos