lătra

Forms

a lătra (third-person singular present latră, past participle lătrat, third-person subjunctive latre), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lātrō (“to bark”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian alatru, Megleno-Romanian latru and Istro-Romanian lǫtru.^[2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian latrare, Catalan lladrar and Spanish ladrar.^[2][8]

The regional alătra of Oltenia and Banat has the prefix a-, as in acoperi, or comes straight from Latin allātrō, as Scriban held.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the 16th-century psalters, from the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520) on, where latră in Psalm 9 renders “lies in wait”.^[9][10] Tiktin calls this sense a mistranslation.^[10] The sense “to bark” is in Mardarie's lexicon of 1649, where latru glosses Slavonic “I bark”.^[11][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of dogs, foxes and wolves, and with an object it means to rush at someone barking.^[4][5] The Bible of 1688 speaks of dumb dogs that cannot bark, and Cantemir of watchdogs that neither barked nor whined.^[3] Of people it means to talk on and on in a harsh voice, to slander, or to nag.^[5][4] The idioms a lătra la lună “to bark at the moon”, to talk to no purpose, and a lătra în lună “to be useless” come from the dog's habit.^[4][10] The old sense “to lie in wait” did not survive.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – latră “lies in wait” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalm 9.^[9]
• c. 1573-1578 – the same passage in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10][9]
• 1649 – latru “I bark” in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11][4]
• 1688 – dogs that cannot lătra in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of dogs, foxes and wolves) To bark: Câinele vecinului latră toată noaptea.^[5][4][1]
2. (transitive) To rush barking at someone.^[5][4]
3. (derogatory, of people) To talk on and on in a harsh voice, to yap; to badmouth or nag someone.^[5][4]

Word family

• lătrat
• lătrător
• lătrătură
• alătra

Related words

• Aromanian alatru
• Latin latro

Usage notes

The present is latru, latră, with /a/ under the stress; regional speech also has lătrează.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. lătra
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lătra
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1328
5. ^ 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. 581
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 77
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 166
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4928
9. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 9:32
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lătra
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. latru