mădular

Forms

mădular n (plural mădulare)^[1] In the sense “member of a society” the word is masculine, plural mădulari;^[2][3] Kogălniceanu writes of scholars who were „mădulări a Academiei” “members of the Academy”.^[2][3] The plural of the neuter noun is mădulare, in older and popular use also mădulări.^[4][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin medullāris (“of the marrow”).^{[5][2][4][6][1]} Tiktin thinks the noun arose from os medullare (“marrow bone”), and points to a 9th-century glossary that explains medullarum as membrorum (“of the limbs”).^[7] Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu (no. 1014), Candrea–Densusianu (no. 1115) and Tiktin, and mentions Densusianu's view that the word comes through a noun *medullarium, which he thinks unnecessary.^[5] Candrea–Densusianu give both that noun and the adjective with a change of ending.^[8] The Latin adjective is formed on medulla (“marrow”), the source of măduvă.^[1][9] De Vaan connects the Latin noun with Proto-Indo-European *smer-u- (“marrow”), with an unexplained change of /r/ to /d/.^[10]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian mãdular, which also means “occiput”.^[5][11][12] Ciorănescu takes the sense “member of a society” as a calque of French membre, while noting after Tiktin that the sense already existed in Medieval Latin.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the place name Mădularii in a document of 1501.^[7] In Romanian texts it appears in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the Epistle of James: „Au nu-s de acicea di în dulceațele voastre cele ce voinicescu întru mădularele voastre?” “come they not hence, from your pleasures that war in your members?”^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word is the usual name for the limbs and, more broadly, the parts and organs of the body: the New Testament of 1648 calls the tongue „mic mădulariu” “a little member”, and Antim's sermons say that when one member is sick all the members suffer.^[6][7] It was also a euphemism for the male member, as in the church law that barred from the clergy those who had cut off their members.^[7][4]

From the body the sense passed to people as members of a body: members of the holy Church in old religious writings, members of a court in the commercial code of 1840, members of the Academy in Kogălniceanu.^[7][3] Craftsmen used it for parts of a cart and the wooden pins that hold it together, and in Moldavia for a large auger, as against the smaller butelnic and spițelnic.^[7][4][13] Today the word is popular or dated.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1501 – the place name Mădularii.^[7]
• c. 1563–1583 – mădularele “the members” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][6]
• 1648 – mădulariu, of the tongue, in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[6]
• 1649 – mădulare glossing Slavonic členy “limbs” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – mădulare in the Bucharest Bible, Romans 12:5.^[16]
• 1840 – mădularele “the members” of a court in the commercial code.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular, mostly in the plural) a limb of a living being; more generally, any part or organ of the body.^[2][4][1]
2. (euphemistic) the penis.^[4][1]
3. (dated; masculine, plural mădulari) a member of a society, an association or a group.^[2][3]
4. (regional) a large auger; in the plural, the wooden pins that hold the parts of a cart together.^[4][13]

Word family

• mădulări

Related words

• măduvă
• Aromanian mãdular
• Latin medulla

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 626
3. ^ a b c d e Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 33
4. ^ 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, 1447
5. ^ 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. mădular
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mădular
7. ^ 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. mădular
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5463
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 660
12. ^ 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, p. 1, 132
13. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. mădular
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 784
15. ^ 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. mădulare
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Rom 12:5