iris

Forms

iris n (plural irisuri) “iris of the eye”; m (plural iriși) “iris, the flower”.^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French iris, with Latin iris as a second source.^[1][3][4][2] The DN gives French alone for the flower, and Scriban French for the eye.^[5][6]

The Latin word comes from Ancient Greek ἶρις (îris, “rainbow”), also the name of Iris, the messenger of the gods, and already in Greek a plant name, the purple iris.^[7][8] French borrowed it from Latin in the first half of the 12th century; the senses “coloured part of the eye” and “iris flower” come from colours that recall the rainbow.^[8] The origin of the Greek word is uncertain.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 has Irisŭ as the mythological goddess of the rainbow, the colours of the rainbow, and in anatomy the coloured part of the eye around the pupil.^[9] Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 gives the anatomical sense.^[10] MDA2 cites the word only from Cezar Petrescu's novel Întunecare of 1928, in a description of eyes with threads of gold in the iris.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Romanian has the eye sense and the flower sense, with different genders: the neuter iris, plural irisuri, for the membrane of the eye and the adjustable diaphragm of optical instruments, and the masculine iris, plural iriși, for the plant, the popular stânjenel.^[1][11][12] Șăineanu in 1929 gives both the eye and the plant.^[13] MDN also records the old sense “rainbow, solar spectrum”, and Scriban a variety of quartz that shows the colours of the rainbow.^[14][6]

Timeline

• 1870 – Irisŭ in Costinescu's dictionary: the rainbow goddess, the rainbow colours and the coloured part of the eye.^[9]
• 1886 – the anatomical sense in Barcianu's dictionary.^[10]
• 1928 – the iris of the eye in Cezar Petrescu's Întunecare, the first record MDA2 gives.^[3]
• 1929 – the plant sense, with the popular name stânjenel, in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. (neuter; anatomy) The iris: the round coloured membrane of the eye in front of the lens, with the pupil in its centre.^[1][3][2]
2. (neuter) A diaphragm of variable opening in optical instruments, which controls the beam of light let in.^[1][3]
3. (masculine; botany) The iris, a perennial plant with long leaves and large violet, white or yellow flowers; the stânjenel.^[1][5]

Related words

• stânjenel
• iridă

Usage notes

The neuter plural irisuri belongs to the eye and the diaphragm, the masculine plural iriși to the flower.^[1][3] Moroianu lists the two as separate words, iris “flower” and iris “eye”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 524
2. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1164
4. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. iris
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. iris
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 660
7. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 561
10. ^ 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. 286
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 547
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. iris
13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 343
14. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. iris
15. ^ Moroianu, Cristian (2005), Dublete și triplete etimologice în limba română, București: Editura Universității din București, p. 118