măduvă

Forms

măduvă f (uncountable)^[1] Old texts have măduhă: Dosoftei's verse Psalter offers „jărtve de ars cu măduhă grasă” “burnt offerings of fat marrow”.^[2][3] Regional variants include măduă, mădugă, moduă and măduie.^[3][4] Scriban gives the stress mădúvă in the west and măduvă with initial stress in the east.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin medulla (“marrow, pith”).^[4][3][6][1] The Latin word gave măduă, and the hiatus was then filled by /v/ (elsewhere /h/ or /g/), as in văduvă.^[4][7][1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the shift of stress to the first syllable by the influence of that word.^[7] De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Indo-European *smer-u- (“marrow”), with an unexpected change of /r/ to /d/; others compared medius (“middle”).^[8][1]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian mãduã and Megleno-Romanian miduă.^[4][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian midolla, Old French meolle, French moelle, Occitan mezola and Spanish meollo.^[4][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Coresi's Lucrul apostolesc of 1563, in the verse of Hebrews about the word of God that divides soul and spirit „și măduva den oase” “and the marrow from the bones”.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The anatomical sense, the soft fat in the bones, is the oldest; from it come măduva spinării “spinal cord” and the pith in the stem of plants such as the elder.^[6][5] Figuratively it means the essence of a thing, as in măduva unei cărți “the core of a book”.^[5][6] Phrases such as până în măduva oaselor “to the marrow of one's bones” express something felt deeply, cold or fear.^[6][3]

In Aromanian mãduã has also come to mean “brain; intelligence”.^[9] Candrea and Densusianu suggest the influence of Modern Greek, though the same sense appears in other Romance languages.^[7]

Timeline

• 1563 – măduva in Coresi's Lucrul apostolesc, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1688 – măduhă in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Marrow, bone marrow: the soft yellowish or red substance inside the bones that helps to form blood and bone tissue;^[6][3][1] măduva spinării “the spinal cord”.^[6][3][1]
2. The pith: the soft central part of the stem of a plant.^[6][12]
3. (figurative, rare) The essence or core of something.^[6]

Word family

• măduvos

Related words

• medular
• Aromanian mãduã
• Latin medulla

Usage notes

Până în măduva oaselor or până în măduvă means “to the core, deeply”: l-a pătruns frigul până în măduva oaselor “the cold chilled him to the bone”.^[6][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. măduvă
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, 1447
4. ^ a b c d e 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. măduvă
5. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 784
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 626
7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. măduvă
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 660
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 189
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5463
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. măduvă