fur

Forms

fur m (plural furi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fūr (“thief”).^[2][3][4][1] Pușcariu (no. 676), Candrea–Densusianu (no. 689) and the REW list it among the inherited words.^[2][5] The Latin noun comes from *bʰṓr (“thief”), a cognate of Ancient Greek φώρ (phṓr); de Vaan rejects the old view that Latin borrowed it from Greek.^[6][1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian fur and Megleno-Romanian fur.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian furo and Old French fur.^[2][9] The verb fura “to steal” and the noun furt “theft” continue two Latin words of the same family, furor (“to steal”) and furtum (“theft”).^[10][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the personal name Furul in a Slavonic-Romanian charter of 1448.^[11] In Romanian texts it first appears in the Codicele Voronețean, where Christians are told not to suffer ca furulu “as a thief”.^[12][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense has always been “thief, robber”.^[4][12] The word was common in the old texts, from Coresi's Psalter to the chronicles, and the phrase fur de cele sfinte named a church robber.^[12][13] Hoț has since replaced it, and DA already called it nearly obsolete.^[12] It lives on in proverbs, in archaizing literature such as Sadoveanu's and Ispirescu's, in Maramureș and in place names such as Valea Furului.^[14][15] A Bulgarian surname is formed on it.^[1]

Timeline

• 1448 – the personal name Furul.^[11]
• c. 1563-1583 – furulu in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][12]
• 1648 – ca furul in the New Testament.^[12]
• 1688 – ca furii “like thieves” in the Bucharest Bible, at Joel 2:9.^[11][16]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda: furu, “Dieb, Räuber”.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. (archaic) A thief, a robber.^[4][3][1]
2. (archaic) fur de cele sfinte: a church robber.^[13][17]

Word family

• furișor

Related words

• fura
• furt
• Aromanian fur
• Latin fūr

Usage notes

Fur is also the first person singular present of fura “to steal”, and Scriban lists the noun and the verb under the same spelling.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. fur
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 954
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 420
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3590
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 183
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 132
9. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 58
10. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 105
11. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fur
12. ^ a b c d e f 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. fur
13. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 242
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 344
15. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. fur
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Joel 2:9
17. ^ 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. 230
18. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 534