măr

Forms

măr m (plural meri) “apple tree”; n (plural mere) “apple”^[1][2] Tiktin records a feminine mară “apple” in Banat, shaped after pară “pear”.^[3] Ciorănescu notes the Banat plural mere as a feminine.^[4]

Etymology

It continues the Latin forms with /e/ for classical /a/: the fruit is inherited from Latin mēlum (“apple”), a variant of mālum, and the tree inherited from Vulgar Latin *mēlus (“apple tree”), for mālus.^{[2][5][3][6][1]} Ciorănescu, with Pușcariu and the REW, compares the vowel of Ancient Greek μῆλον (mêlon, “apple”).^[4][7]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian mer, Megleno-Romanian mer and Istro-Romanian mer, each with the masculine tree and the neuter fruit.^[4][8][9] Romance has Italian melo “apple tree” and Italian mela “apple”.^[4][1] Philippide compared Albanian moljë.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates both the tree and the fruit to 1532, in a Slavonic charter.^[5][3] In Romanian texts both appear in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660–1670: lemn de măr “apple wood” and a kind of apples “full of seeds”.^[10][6]

Semantic evolution

Romanian keeps tree and fruit apart by gender and plural: masculine meri for the trees, neuter mere for the apples.^[2][1] The fruit named rounded things: merele obrazului were the cheekbones in old Moldavian texts, and Banat had mărul palmei for the ball of the hand.^[3][6] Many plant names are compounds: mărul-lupului “birthwort”, măr-gutui “quince”, and regionally măr de pământ “Jerusalem artichoke; potato”.^[2][6][3]

The tree has a place in the wedding custom: mărul was a branch or tree hung with fruit and gifts, set up at the wedding or a year after it.^[5][6] Learned phrases followed: mărul discordiei “the apple of discord” and mărul lui Adam “Adam's apple”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1532 – first record, in a Slavonic charter.^[5]
• c. 1660–1670 – măr “apple tree” and mere “apples” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10][6]
• 1686 – meri “apple trees” in a deed of sale of a vineyard.^[10]
• 1793 – pere, mere “pears, apples” in a document.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine, plural meri) An apple tree (Malus domestica); măr pădureț the crab apple.^[2][1]
2. (neuter, plural mere) An apple, the fruit of the apple tree.^[2][1]
3. (neuter) In set phrases: mărul discordiei “the apple of discord”;^[2][6] mărul lui Adam “Adam's apple”.^[2][6]

Word family

• merișor
• merar
• meret
• meriș

Related words

• Aromanian mer
• Latin mālum

Usage notes

DEX and MDA2 give two headwords, măr¹ (masculine, plural meri) “apple tree” and măr² (neuter, plural mere) “apple”; they share one Latin origin and are senses of one noun.^[2][6] De florile mărului means “for nothing, to no purpose”, and a bate pe cineva măr “to beat someone black and blue”.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 628
3. ^ 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. măr 2
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. măr
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. măr 1
6. ^ 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, 1454
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5272
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 678
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. mer
10. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. măr