luceafăr

Forms

luceafăr m (plural luceferi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lūcifer (“light-bringing; the morning star”), continued through its accusative lūciferum.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin word is formed on lūx (“light”) with -fer (“-carrying”), a calque of Ancient Greek Φωσφόρος (Phōsphóros).^[1][6]

It survives in Aromanian luțeafir.^[2][7] Ciorănescu compares Spanish lucífero; the REW also lists lucero and Portuguese luzeiro, but Candrea and Densusianu thought these cannot come from the Latin form and took them as formations on the word for light.^[2][8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the 16th-century psalters, in Psalm 109: „mai nainte de luceafăr” “before the morning star”;^[10] Coresi's psalter of 1570 is the earliest dated print.^[10][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named the planet Venus, the morning and evening star, and in folk astronomy other bright stars as well: Aldebaran, Sirius and Vega each have a luceafăr name.^[3][11] In the 17th century Miron Costin glosses Hesperus as „luceafărul cel de noapte”, the evening star, and the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it for Slavonic денница and for Aphrodite.^[4][12] Church writers such as Antim Ivireanul also used it for Lucifer, the chief of the fallen angels, a sense now obsolete.^[4][2]

The figurative sense “a shining figure, the pride of a group” is in folk poetry („Luceafărul satului”) and in 19th-century prose.^[4][13] In folk tradition the star was personified as the Sun's son who loves mortal girls, the theme of Eminescu's poem Luceafărul.^[14] Ciorănescu derives a word for the devil, luceflengher, from it.^[2]

Timeline

• 1570 – luceafăr in Coresi's psalter, the first dated record.^[10]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][4]
• c. 1660–1670 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing денница.^[12]
• 1688 – luceafărul in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The popular name of the planet Venus, the morning star or evening star, and of other bright stars: luceafărul-de-dimineață the morning star, luceafărul-de-seară the evening star.^[11][3]
2. (figurative) a man of outstanding qualities; a paragon.^[11][16][1]
3. (obsolete) Lucifer, the prince of the devils.^[2][1]

Word family

• luceflengher
• luceferel

Related words

• luci
• Lucifer
• Aromanian luțeafir
• Latin lūcifer

Usage notes

The folk compounds name different stars: Luceafărul-Porcilor and Luceafărul-Boului are Venus in the morning, Luceafărul-Ciobanilor Venus in the evening, Luceafărul-cel-Mare-de-Miezul-Nopții Vega, and Luceafărul-Porcesc Aldebaran.^[11][3] The plural is luceferi.^[11] Written with a capital, Luceafăr is a name of the star itself.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. luceafăr
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, 1398
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. luceafăr
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 85
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 645
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5141
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 1012
10. ^ 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 109:4
11. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 602
12. ^ 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. luceafăr
13. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. luceafăr
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 371
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Job 38:32
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. luceafăr