macru

Forms

macru m or n (feminine singular macră, masculine plural macri, feminine/neuter plural macre)^[1] MDA2 records a regional feminine maclă for the sense “lean (of meat)”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin macer (“thin, lean”), from its accusative macrum.^{[3][4][2][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu (no. 1012), Candrea–Densusianu (no. 1037) and the REW for this etymology.^[3][7][8] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian macru.^[3][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian magro, Spanish magro, Portuguese magro, French maigre, Occitan magre and Catalan magre.^[3][8]

The Latin adjective goes back to Proto-Indo-European *mh₂ḱ-ro- (“long”), and is related to Ancient Greek μακρός (makrós, “long”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the personal name Macrea in a document of 1485.^[6] The first record in a Romanian text is in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1704), which already uses the word of meat: „Oricât de macră și de vânjoasă carnea li-ar fi, decât stârvul împuțit tot mai dulce iaste” “however lean and sinewy their flesh may be, rotten carrion is still sweeter”, said of birds.^[2][5][6]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is “lean”, said of meat, especially butcher's meat, without fat or bones.^[5][4] Ciorănescu notes that the word is said only of meat, and Scriban that in the west of the country slab is used instead.^[3][12] Used as a noun, macră is the lean meat itself, as in Sbiera's tales, where one brother gets only bones, gristle and macră.^[5][6] Regionally the noun names the layer of meat in bacon and the muscular part of an organ.^[5][2]

Mainly in Transylvania the adjective is said of animals and, by extension, of people: “thin, wiry”.^[5][2] MDA2 also records it of poor soil and, in the old language, in the figurative sense “frail”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1485 – the personal name Macrea in a document.^[6]
• 1704 – macră, of the flesh of birds, in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[2][5]
• 1801 – mácru, glossed with Latin macer, in Klein's dictionary.^[13]
• 1825 – macru in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (of meat) lean: without fat and without bones;^[4][2][1] carne macră “lean meat”.^[4][2][1]
2. (of animals, people and parts of the body) thin, wiry.^[15][2][5]
3. (of soil) poor.^[2][5]

Noun

1. (feminine macră) lean meat;^[5][2] (regional) the layer of meat in bacon.^[5][2]

Word family

• măcriciune

Related words

• Aromanian macru
• Latin macer

Usage notes

In Bukovina a feminine noun macră is used for the haunch, according to Ciorănescu, who cites the linguistic atlas ALR.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1414
3. ^ 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. macru
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 609
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. macru
6. ^ 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. macru
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5202
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 649
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 607
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 764
13. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 393
14. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 367
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. macru