farfurie

Forms

farfurie f (plural farfurii)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish فغفوری (fağfuri, “Chinese porcelain”), in the popular pronunciation ⟨farfuri⟩, and partly borrowed from Modern Greek φαρφουρί (farfourí, “porcelain”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The DA thought the Greeks helped spread it.^[4] Wiktionary writes the popular Ottoman form فافوری (fafuri).^[1] The Ottoman adjective is from فغفور (fağfur), the title of the emperors of China, recorded in 1451; it is from Persian فغفور (faġfūr), which named both the emperor and the porcelain of China.^[7][8][9]

The word went into several Balkan languages: the forms include Aromanian fãrfuriu “porcelain”, Albanian farfuri, Bulgarian фарфория (farforija) and Serbo-Croatian fagfùrija.^[6][10][11] Ciorănescu, after Miklosich, thought Polish farfury came from Romanian.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Ion Neculce's chronicle (about 1743), in the old sense “porcelain”: a cup kept at Putna, said to be of jasper, looked like white marble and like porcelain, ca a farfuriei.^[5][4][9] Ciorănescu notes that the first porcelain factory in Bucharest was set up only in 1806.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense “plate” grew in Romanian, the DA says: first a porcelain plate for food, as distinct from ordinary plates, then a plate of any material.^[4] Documents of 1790 and 1793 already list silver and gilded farfurii.^[4] In the old literary language it was Moldavian.^[12] Once it became literary it reached Transylvania, where it had been unknown.^[4] The sense “porcelain” lasted into the 19th century, in Drăghici and Alecsandri, and is now obsolete.^[5][2]

Pontbriant (1862) had farfurie mare “platter” and farfurie adâncă “soup plate”.^[4] Tiktin adds the flat plate, farfurie întinsă.^[5] The idiom parcă calcă în farfurii “as if walking on plates” describes someone stepping slowly and carefully.^[4] Farfurie zburătoare “flying saucer”, a UFO, follows English flying saucer and French soucoupe volante; in the 2000s the word was also used for a satellite dish.^[13][2]

Timeline

• c. 1743 – “porcelain” in Ion Neculce's chronicle, the first record.^[5][4]
• 1790 – silver farfurii “plates” in a document.^[4]
• 1862 – farfurie adâncă “soup plate” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[4]
• 2004 – farfurie “satellite dish” in the press.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A plate: a round dish of china or earthenware with a slightly raised rim, flat or deep, in which food is served.^[2][3][1]
2. (obsolete) porcelain.^[2][1]
3. (familiar) farfurie zburătoare: a flying saucer.^[2][3]

Word family

• farfurigiu
• farfurioară

Related words

• strachină
• talger

Usage notes

The diminutives are farfurioară and farfuriuță, the latter also a saucer.^[5] An old derivative farfurigiu meant a seller of porcelain.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 381
3. ^ 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, 877
4. ^ 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. farfurie
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. farfurie
6. ^ 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. farfurie
7. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences, p. 29
8. ^ Eren, Hasan (1999), Türk Dilinin Etimolojik Sözlüğü, Ankara: Bizim Büro, p. 142
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1900), Influența orientală asupra limbei și culturei române, vol. I: Introducerea; vol. II.1: Vorbele populare; vol. II.2: Vorbele istorice, literare, Indice, București: Socec, p. 2, 168
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 447
11. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
12. ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 126
13. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. farfurie