fiu

Forms

fiu m (plural fii)^[1] Old texts write fiiu: Coresi's Psalter heads a psalm „când fugiia de fața lui Avesalom, fiiul său” “when he fled from Absalom, his son”.^[2][3] With a possessive the word is often shortened, as in fiu-meu “my son” and fiu-său “his son”; regional speech also has fii-meu.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fīlius (“son”).^[5][3][2][1] DER cites Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW for this etymology.^[5][6] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian hilj, Megleno-Romanian il'u and Istro-Romanian filʼ.^[5][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian figlio, French fils, Spanish hijo and Portuguese filho.^[5][6]

The Latin noun first meant a suckling child: de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dʰ(e)h₁i-l- (“suckling, child”), from the root of fēmina (“woman”) and fēlō (“to suck”).^[9] The word Hungarian fiú (“son, boy”), almost identical in sound and sense, is unrelated: it goes back to a Finno-Ugric word for a son.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The plural fiii “sons” already occurs in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[11] MDA2 takes its first record from the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583),^[3] where Mark is called the writer's son; the same text has fiiu de Fariseiu “son of a Pharisee” in the wider sense of a descendant.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant a son in relation to his parents since the first texts, mostly with a possessive: fiu-meu, fiu-său, fiul risipitor “the prodigal son”.^[4][2] Church language has fiul omenesc, a name of Jesus, in Coresi, and old texts use the word for a descendant in general.^[2][3] The Bible of 1688 even applies it to young animals, fii de boi și de berbeci “calves and lambs”, which the DA marks as an improper use.^[2]

Older people address a younger man as fiule to show goodwill or affection, a use the DA quotes from a calendar of 1844.^[2][12] Fiu de suflet is an adopted son, and a figurative sense is a member of a community to which one feels bound.^[3][12] DER notes that Ruthenian borrowed the word as fil, after Miklosich.^[5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – the plural fiii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11]
• c. 1563–1583 – fiu and fiiu “son, descendant” in the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[3][2]
• 1570 – fiii in Coresi's Psalter.^[13]
• 1688 – fii de boi și de berbeci “calves and lambs” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]
• 1844 – the vocative fiiule as a kindly address in a calendar.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A son: a male person considered in relation to his parents.^[12][3][1]
2. (in the vocative) An affectionate form of address used by an older person to a younger man: Vino încoace, fiule!^[12][3]
3. (figurative) A citizen or member of a community to which he feels deeply attached.^[12]
4. (dated) A descendant.^[3][2]

Word family

• înfia

Related words

• Aromanian hilj
• Latin fīlius

Usage notes

Set phrases include fiu de suflet “adopted son”, fiu natural “child born out of wedlock” and Fiul omului or, in old church texts, fiul omenesc “the Son of Man”.^[3][2] The plural is fii.^[12]

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 l 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. fiu
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 911
4. ^ 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. fiu
5. ^ 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. fiu
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3303
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 542
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 11:9
12. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 397
13. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 10:5