fluier

Forms

fluier n (plural fluiere)^[1] Transylvania and the Banat have a feminine fluieră: „zice în fluieră” “he plays the pipe”, of a shepherd.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: Tiktin calls it unknown, and DEX and MDA2 only compare Albanian floere.^[3][4][5] NODEX calls it a native word.^[6] Ciorănescu takes it as a back-formation from Romanian fluiera (“to whistle”), an expressive verb built on the whistling sound ⟨f(l)iu⟩.^[7] DA, MDA2 and Tiktin go the other way and derive the verb from the noun.^[8][5][9]

Other proposals start from Latin: Vulgar Latin *flibula (Crețu), fībula (Subak), and Pascu's *flaulō.^[7] Giuglea suggested Greek, and Pușcariu a native word.^[7] Wiktionary adds Latin flātūrālis (“blowing”).^[1] It is related to Aromanian fluiarã.^[3][10]

Ciorănescu holds that the Albanian word comes from Romanian, as do Modern Greek φλογέρα (flogéra), Serbo-Croatian frula, Czech fujara, Polish fujara and Hungarian furulya.^[7][3] Babiniotis derives the Greek word from Albanian and calls the group a Balkan word of uncertain origin.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to Coresi's Praxiu of 1563.^[3] MDA2's first record is Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where the word is already used for the shin.^[5][12] A personal name Fluieraș is recorded in 1644.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is the shepherd's pipe, a wooden tube with six to eight holes.^[12][4] Later it named the small metal whistle and the steam whistle used for signals, and the whistling sound itself.^[4][5]

The sense “shin, tibia” is found all over the Romanian-speaking area.^[7] Ciorănescu and DA compare Latin tibia, which also meant both “pipe” and “shin”.^[7][12] The bird name fluierar “curlew” comes from that sense.^[7] A jocular phrase, a cânta cu fluierele, means to sit crouched with the knees at the mouth.^[12][5]

The word spread into the neighbouring languages: Hungarian furulya is recorded from 1643, and Czech, Slovak and Polish have fujara.^[1][7]

Timeline

• 1563 – fluier in Coresi's Praxiu, the first record.^[3]
• 1643 – Hungarian furulya, borrowed from Romanian.^[1]
• 1644 – the personal name Fluieraș.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – fluierele “the shins” and fluere “pipes” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[5][12]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives both “long shepherd's pipe” and “shin”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pipe or flute: a folk wind instrument made of a thin wooden tube with holes.^[4][1]
2. A small whistle, usually of metal.^[4][1]
3. (technology) A device that sounds when steam or gas passes through it, used for signals.^[4]
4. A whistling sound.^[4][5]
5. (popular) The shin; the tibia.^[4][1]

Word family

• fluieraș
• fluieroi

Related words

• fluiera
• fluierar
• Aromanian fluiarã

Usage notes

DA has a second headword fluier “whistling”, used in the singular and formed from the verb;^[12][4][5] DEX and MDA2 give it as a sense of this word.^[12][4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. fluier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fluier
4. ^ 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. 402
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 920
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. fluier
7. ^ 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. fluiera
8. ^ 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. fluiera
9. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fluiera
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 465
11. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1604
12. ^ a b c d e f g 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. fluier
13. ^ 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. 221