fragă

Forms

fragă f (plural fragi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin frāga (“strawberries”), the neuter plural of frāgum, taken as a feminine singular.^[2][3][4][1] The same reading of the plural shows in other Romance languages, but Romanian also has a parallel masculine frag.^[2] Tiktin explains it from the plural ⟨fragi⟩, which kept its ⟨a⟩ because the word was mostly used in the plural and was then taken for a masculine.^[5] The Latin word may be a loanword: de Vaan compares Albanian dredhë (“strawberry”) and also Greek words for “grape”.^[6]

The word survives in Aromanian frangã and Istro-Romanian frǫș.^[7][2] Romance cognates include Venetian fraga and French fraise, the French word altered after framboise.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1579.^[5] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses Fraga with Latin fragum.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word names the fruit of the wild strawberry, and also the plant.^[5][11] Tiktin notes that the split between feminine fragă for the fruit and masculine frag for the plant is learned, and that Moldavian uses frag for both.^[5] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) distinguishes fragă de pământ “strawberry” from fragă de pom “mulberry”.^[12] The sense “mulberry” survives regionally, especially in Transylvania.^[2][4] Tiktin contrasts the wild fragă with căpșună, the cultivated garden strawberry.^[5]

Timeline

• 1579 – first record.^[5]
• 1801 – Fraga in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1825 – fragă de pământ “strawberry” and fragă de pom “mulberry” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[12]
• 1886 – MDA2's record, from Conachi's poems.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A wild strawberry: the edible red, fleshy receptacle of the plant frag (Fragaria vesca), with the true fruits on its surface.^[4][11]
2. fragă-tătărească: strawberry blite, a plant with red fruits (Blitum virgatum).^[4]
3. (regional) A mulberry, also fragă de pom.^[4][11]

Word family

• frag
• frăgar
• frăguliță
• frăgurel

Usage notes

A folk saying, pentru fragă, și frunza ți-e dragă, is said of people who make do with little when they can't have what they want.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. fragă
3. ^ 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. fragă
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 411
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. fragă
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 467
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3480
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 362
11. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 937
12. ^ a b 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. 224