grangur

Forms

grangur m (plural granguri)^[1] DEX gives the popular variants gangur, grangor and grangure;^[2] gangur is the Moldavian form, greangur the Banat one.^[2][3] Cantemir writes gangur in a list of birds: „Turturea, gangur, pițiguș” “turtle dove, oriole, titmouse”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin galgulus (“a yellow bird, perhaps the golden oriole”), a form of galbulus with assimilation.^{[5][6][2][7][1]} Wiktionary traces it to galbus (“yellow”).^[1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the Romanian forms in steps: the Latin word first became ⟨galgur⟩, the form kept in Aromanian, and dissimilation then gave gangur, which took its ⟨r⟩ from graur.^[5] Tiktin also explains the ⟨gra-⟩ by the starling's name.^[3]

Aromanian galgur or gangur is an adjective, meaning dark green or greenish yellow, said of sheep.^[8][9][5] Albanian gargull (“thrush”) is a loan from the same Latin word, as Çabej showed, with /l…l/ dissimilated to /r…l/.^[10] Ciorănescu compares Spanish gálgulo.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears as a personal name, Gangur, in a document of 1456, and again in 1481.^[3][4] As a bird name it glosses Slavonic вуга in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660–1670.^[11] MDA2 dates it from Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1704).^[6]

Semantic evolution

The bird is the golden oriole, named for its yellow plumage.^[2][5] The diminutive grângurel also described a horse of yellow colour in folk poetry: „Pe-un cal galben grângorel”.^[4]

The word is also a disparaging name for a powerful man.^[4][2] The DA records it in Muntenia for a rich, proud man.^[4] DLRLC (1955) gives it as an ironic name for the notables of the exploiting classes and for gendarmes.^[12] DEX defines it as someone in a high social or political position, a ștab.^[2] Ciorănescu compares the bird's other name domnișor “little lord”.^[5] In slang the word names a high-ranking police officer.^[13]

Timeline

• 1456 – the personal name Gangur, the first record.^[3]
• 1481 – the personal name Gangur again.^[3][4]
• c. 1660–1670 – grangur in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1704 – gangur in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[6][4]
• 1801 – grángur, glossed galbula, in Klein's dictionary.^[14]
• 1955 – DLRLC records the ironic sense “bigwig”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The golden oriole (Oriolus oriolus), a migratory songbird, golden-yellow with black wings in the male, greenish in the female.^[2][6][1]
2. (pejorative) A person in a high social or political position; a bigwig, ștab.^[2][6]

Related words

• galben
• Aromanian galgur
• Albanian gargull

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 446
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. grángur
4. ^ 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. grangur
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. grangur
6. ^ 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, 1016
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 486
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 91
10. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
11. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. grangur
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 405
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. grangur
14. ^ 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. 367