graur

Forms

graur m (plural grauri)^[1] DEX gives a popular variant graure, which Odobescu uses.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin graulus (“crow”), a popular form of grāculus (“jackdaw”) recorded in the Latin glosses.^[4][5][2][6] Candrea started from *gravulus, and Wiktionary gives both this and *graulus.^[4][1] The Romance cognates include Italian gravolo and French grolle.^[4][1][6]

The Latin word imitates the bird's croaking call.^[7][8] De Vaan compares Slavic and Germanic words for croaking, but notes that the onomatopoeia makes an inherited Indo-European word hard to prove;^[9][1] Wiktionary posits Proto-Indo-European *greh₂-k- (“to croak”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the personal name Graur, in 1617.^[10] As a common noun it appears in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1664–1693, where graurul glosses a Slavonic word for the starling.^[11] Klein's dictionary of 1801 has gráur “sturnus”.^[12]

Semantic evolution

Besides the starling, the word names a horse colour: cal graur is a grey horse dappled with white, like the bird's plumage, a frequent formula of folk poetry.^[10][13][2] It became a horse's name as well.^[13]

Figuratively it is a nickname for Roma;^[13] Zanne records pui de graur din luna lui Faur “starling chicks of February”, a jibe at noisy Roma children.^[13][10] Folk belief calls the feast of Saints Constantine and Helen (21 May) Ileana graurilor, because the young starlings fly from the nest that day.^[10][14]

Timeline

• 1617 – the personal name Graur, the first record.^[10]
• 1664–1693 – graurul in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1801 – gráur in Klein's dictionary.^[12]
• 1825 – grauru “sturnus” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]
• 1887 – graure in Odobescu's writings, MDA2's first record.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The starling (Sturnus vulgaris), a migratory bird with a pointed yellowish bill and black-green plumage spotted with white.^[2][5][1]
2. (popular, euphemistic) A nickname for a Rom.^[5][13]

Adjective

1. Of horses: grey dappled with white, dapple-grey.^[2][5][1]

Word family

• grăuraș
• grăuriță

Related words

• Latin grāculus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 447
3. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 407
4. ^ a b c 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. graur
5. ^ 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, 1017
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3850
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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. gráur
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. graur
12. ^ 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. 367
13. ^ a b c d e 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. graur
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 573
15. ^ 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. 243