fusar

Forms

fusar m (plural fusari)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian fus + -ar, from fus “spindle” with the agent suffix.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Pușcariu derived the sense “spindle maker” directly from a Latin fūsārius, comparing Italian fusaio and Portuguese fuseiro.^[7][6] Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[1] The REW lists the word among the Romance derivatives of Latin fūsus (“spindle”), with French fuselier and Occitan fuzelier.^[8] The fish and the bird are named for their spindle-shaped body and bill.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825, for the weatherfish, țipar.^[3][4][5]

Semantic evolution

The 19th-century dictionaries translate it as an eel: Antonescu's fussaru of 1875 and Damé's fusar of the 1890s.^[9][10] Marian's book on insects mentions the fusar, also called pișcar, whose head is cut off before it is eaten.^[4] Antipa, as the DA quotes him, describes the streber, a yellow-brown fish 10–15 cm long, also called sular in Argeș and fus in Oltenia, with a Moldavian form fâsar.^[4] Marian's ornithology has the name for a long-legged water bird with a long round bill.^[4] The dictionaries list “maker or seller of spindles” as a further sense, which the regional dictionary of Bulgăr and Constantinescu-Dobridor marks as regional.^[4][11] In Maramureș it names the streber of the Tisa.^[12]

Timeline

• 1825 – fusar “weatherfish” in the Lexicon de la Buda, the first record.^[3][5]
• 1870 – Cihac gives it as the spindle maker and the fish Aspro vulgaris.^[13]
• 1875 – fussaru “eel” in Antonescu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1883 – a water bird in Marian's folk ornithology.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. (ichthyology) The streber (Aspro streber), a freshwater fish with a spindle-shaped body, yellow-brown with darker transverse bands.^[2][3] Fusar mare is the zingel, pietrar.^[2][3]
2. The weatherfish (Misgurnus fossilis), țipar.^[2][3]
3. (regional) A maker or seller of spindles.^[3][11]
4. (regional) A long-legged water bird with a long, round bill like a spindle, which feeds on insects and fish.^[3][4]

Related words

• fus
• țipar
• Latin fūsus

Usage notes

DEX gives the variant fusariu.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 422
3. ^ 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, 957
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. fusár
5. ^ 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. fusár
6. ^ a b 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. fus
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 59
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3620
9. ^ a b Antonescu, G. M. (1875), Dictionariu romanu-francesu, Bucuresci: Typografia Curții (Lucrători Associați), p. 109
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. fusar
11. ^ a b Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. fusar
12. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. fusar
13. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 106