greier

Forms

greier m (plural greieri)^[1] Old texts and Moldavia have grier: Mărgăritare tells the idle to go to the gardens „de ascultă pre grieri carii cântă toată zioa” “and listen to the crickets that sing all day”.^[2] MDA2 lists the regional variants greir, grel, greore, grier, griere, greiere, grior and griore;^[3] grel, plural grei, is the Banat form.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *grylliolus, a diminutive of Latin gryllus (“cricket”), according to Candrea and Densusianu, DEX and Wiktionary.^[4][5][1] MDA2, Ciorănescu and the REW give the simple noun, and the REW rejects the diminutive as an impossible Latin form.^[3][5][6] The Romance cognates include Italian grillo, Spanish grillo and Occitan grilh.^[5]

Ciorănescu calls the derivation hard to explain by the sound laws, and lists the attempts.^[5] Crețu started from *grycellus, and Pascu from *grellus, which gave grel and, with a suffix, ⟨greiur⟩.^[5] Scriban went from *grillus through ⟨*greru⟩ to ⟨greur⟩.^[5] Graur started from ⟨*grer⟩, split into ⟨greer⟩ as in creier and prooroc.^[5] Tiktin finds that only the Banat form fits the Latin noun, and traces the other forms to a new *grīŭlus made on the cricket's chirp, which gave ⟨*griur⟩ and ⟨grier⟩.^[2] The Latin word is either from Ancient Greek γρύλλος (grúllos) or onomatopoeic.^[1][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the personal name Greur, in 1594.^[2] In Romanian texts the word appears in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (MDA2: 1704), in a wedding scene where gnats play flutes and crickets horns.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The cricket's monotonous chirp is the core of the word's use.^[8] Tiktin records greier de toamnă and greier de vii for the cicada.^[2] In the west the diminutives greieruș, grieruș and greuruș often displaced the base word.^[2]

The idiom a avea greieri în cap means “to be a bit mad”; the DA asks whether it follows German Grillen im Kopf haben.^[3][9][8] Folk medicine held that crickets creep into the ears of sleepers and come out again with strong vinegar.^[8] Modern slang uses the word for a singer in a restaurant.^[10]

Timeline

• 1594 – the personal name Greur, the first record.^[2]
• 1704 – grierii in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[3][8]
• c. 1705 – the plural greorii in a manuscript.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In the plural, a genus of insects with a short thick body, long antennae and large eyes, with hind legs made for jumping, that chirp by rubbing their wing cases (Gryllus); in the singular, one insect of this genus, a cricket.^[4][3][1]
2. (slang, pejorative) A singer, especially one in a restaurant.^[10]

Word family

• greieraș
• greieruș

Usage notes

A avea greieri în cap “to have crickets in one's head” is said of someone who is a bit mad.^[3][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gréier
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1021
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 449
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. greier
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3900
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ 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. greier
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 575
10. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. greier