lamură

Forms

lamură f (plural lamuri)^[1] Coșbuc uses the form lamur: „ici limpede lamur-a mierii” “here the clear finest of the honey” (his Aeneid).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin lāmina (“thin sheet of metal; bar of precious metal”), so that the old phrases for pure gold and silver first meant “bar gold”, “bar silver”.^{[4][5][3][6][1]} Ciorănescu accepts this etymon with the Lexicon de la Buda, Tiktin and Bogrea, and explains the form by the plural: Latin lāminae gave ⟨*lamene⟩, which became ⟨lamuri⟩ like other plurals in ⟨-uri⟩, and the singular was formed back from it.^[4][7] Tiktin compares țărmure from terminus.^[3] The REW lists the Romanian word under the Latin one, with the sense “finest flour” as well.^[6]

DEX gives the same etymon or a diminutive Vulgar Latin *laminula; the DLR and CADE derive it from *lamnula, as Candrea did;^{[8][2][9][4][10]} Giuglea started from *lamula and Scriban compared *lammula.^{[8][2][9][4][10]} Graur held that none of these explanations works.^[4] Pușcariu took the word, in its sense “finest flour”, from a Latin *remola, a noun from re- and molō (“to grind”), matching northern Italian dialect words for bran and flour.^[11] Roesler thought of Ancient Greek λαμπρός (lamprós, “bright”), and Cihac of a Latin līmō (“to file, polish”).^[4][12] Șăineanu called the word of unknown origin.^[13]

The Latin noun itself has no certain etymology; de Vaan finds the only serious proposal a link with lātus (“wide”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1645, in the Romanian translation of Herodotus, which speaks of a pillar of pure gold, de aur lamură.^[3][2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has argint lamură “refined silver” and a throne overlaid cu aur de lamură.^[3][15]

Semantic evolution

In the old phrases aur lamură, argint de lamură the word works like an adjective: metal of the highest purity.^[2][5] From purity it passed to the best, purest part of anything: lamura făinii “the finest flour”, lamura grâului “the pick of the wheat”, and figuratively the cream of a people or a literature, as when Vlahuță and Sadoveanu write of the lamura of the Romanian soul or language.^[2][16][3] Said of a person it means one of the best, hard-working and honest: lamură de om.^[10][5] The verb lămuri “to refine metal; to clarify, explain” is derived from it.^[4]

Timeline

• 1645 – aur lamură “pure gold” in the Romanian translation of Herodotus, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1688 – argint lamură and aur de lamură in the Bucharest Bible.^[5][15]
• 1825 – lamură “purity, the flower of something” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The best, purest and choicest part of something; the cream, the flower of it.^[8][5][1]
2. Flour of the finest quality.^[10][3]
3. (dated) aur lamură, aur de lamură: gold of the highest purity; likewise silver.^[5][2]
4. (figurative) A person who stands out for diligence and honesty; the elită.^[5][10]

Word family

• lămuri
• lămuritor

Related words

• lamină
• lamă
• Latin lāmina

Usage notes

MDA2 also has a separate regional lamură, a variant of ramură “branch”, recorded in the Moldavian dialect atlas.^[5][18]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lamură
3. ^ 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. lámură
4. ^ 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. lamură
5. ^ 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, 1308
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4869
7. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 121
8. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 576
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. lamură
10. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 726
11. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 81
12. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 137
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 355
14. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Paralipomenon 9:17
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 721
17. ^ 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. 341
18. ^ 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. lamură