fiară

Forms

fiară f (plural fiare)^[1] Old texts often have hiară: „hiarăle cele sălbatice să le îmblânzească” “to tame the wild beasts”.^[2][3] Old plurals are fieri and fiere, and a plural fiară is regional.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fera (“wild animal”).^{[4][3][2][5][1]} Ciorănescu gives Aromanian hiară, although Pușcariu notes that Papahagi did not know it.^[4][5] Romance cognates include Italian fera, Spanish fera and French fier.^[4][5] The Latin noun comes from the adjective ferus (“wild”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰwer-.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the word to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), and Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană of the same century.^[3][2] The old language used it for any animal, fish included, and not only for wild ones.^[6][1]

Semantic evolution

Today the word means a large wild beast, especially a beast of prey, often in fiară sălbatică “wild beast”, and figuratively a cruel or violent person.^[7][2][6]

Ciorănescu calls the adjective fieros “ferocious” an artificial 19th-century creation modelled on French féroce.^[4] The popular fioros is the same word altered under the influence of fior “shiver”, though the dictionaries derive it from fior.^[4] The adjectives fieratec and înfieratic “savage” seem to be Dosoftei's own coinages.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1563-1583 – fiară in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 17th century – fieratec and înfieratic “savage” in Dosoftei.^[4]
• 1688 – fiară in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]
• 19th century – fieros “ferocious”.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large wild animal, a beast.^[7][3][1]
2. (figurative) a cruel, violent person.^[7][3]
3. (old) any animal.^[6][1]

Word family

• fieros
• fioros

Related words

• Latin fera

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. fiară
3. ^ 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, 899
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. fiară
5. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 52
6. ^ 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. fiară
7. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 391
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Marco 5:4