lingură

Forms

lingură f (plural linguri)^[1] An old plural lingure occurs in Moxa's chronicle (1620): „cu lingure de argintu” “with silver spoons”.^[2][3] Regional forms are liungură and lungură;^[3][4] Scriban gives liúngură for the north.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lingula (“spoon”).^{[5][3][6][7][1]} Ciorănescu notes that this form is attested in Martial and arose from a crossing of ligula (“spoon”) with lingō (“to lick”), following Keller, Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, and the REW.^[5][8] Wiktionary analyses it as a diminutive of lingua (“tongue”) influenced by the verb.^[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian lingurã, Megleno-Romanian lingură and Istro-Romanian lingurę.^{[5][9][10][11][12]} Ciorănescu compares Spanish legra and notes Rosetti's view that the Latin word lived on only in Romanian.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to Coresi's Liturghier of 1570.^[7] MDA2 gives Moxa's chronicle of 1620, which mentions silver spoons.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Beside the eating spoon, the word named the ladle and the large wooden spoon shepherds used to stir curdling milk and lift out the curds.^[2][3] Its contents gave the sense “spoonful”.^[6][3] Tools shaped like a spoon took the name: the wheelwright's and cooper's auger, the bailer tube that lifts oil and mud from a well, and the metal fishing lure.^[6][4] Lingura pieptului, “the spoon of the chest”, is a regional name for the hollow at the top of the breastbone.^[6][4]

The derivative lingurar named a spoon maker, a trade of groups of nomadic Roma.^[5] Bulgarian borrowed it as лингур (lingur) “Roma spoon maker”, also simply “Roma”.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1570 – first record, in Coresi's Liturghier.^[7]
• 1620 – the plural lingure in Moxa's chronicle.^[3][2]
• 1688 – lingurile “the spoons” in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A spoon: a utensil of metal or wood with a hollow oval bowl and a handle.^[6][1]
2. A spoonful.^[6][3]
3. (regional) lingura pieptului: the hollow at the top of the breastbone.^[6]
4. A tube with a valve used to bail oil or mud from a borehole.^[6]
5. A wheelwright's or cooper's auger.^[6][5]
6. A metal fishing lure, a spoon.^[6]

Word family

• lingurar
• lingurică
• linguriță
• linguroi

Related words

• Aromanian lingurã
• Latin lingula

Usage notes

A-și mânca banii cu lingura “to eat one's money with a spoon” is said of someone who spends lavishly;^[6][7] a pune cuiva lingurile în brâu “to tuck someone's spoons in his belt” is to leave a latecomer without a meal.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. lingură
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1372
4. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 748
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. lingură
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 593
7. ^ 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. língură
8. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 84
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
10. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 170
12. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 120
13. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 3, 410
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 37:26