mioară

Forms

mioară f (plural mioare)^[1] Regional forms are meioară, meoară, mieoară and mihoară;^[2][3][4] Conachi wrote „Își caută o meoară / Pierdută din turma sa” “he seeks a young ewe lost from his flock”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian mia + -ioară, from mia “young ewe”.^[5][6][2][3] The noun is from Latin agnella (“ewe lamb”).^[7]

Other sources link it with the masculine mior: Ciorănescu derives the masculine from miel “lamb” with the suffix -or and lists this feminine among its derivatives;^[8][1] Wiktionary calls it its feminine.^[8][1] Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu reconstruct a Latin diminutive Vulgar Latin *agnelliōla, which Ciorănescu thinks possible but unnecessary.^[8][9] The Lexicon of Buda (1825) derived it from Ancient Greek μῆλον (mêlon, “sheep”), a view of its time.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first dated Romanian record is the Bucharest Bible of 1688, where a ewe lamb of one year is prescribed as an offering (Numbers 6:14).^[11] The word is older: Hungarian had borrowed it as Hungarian mióra by 1548, when a Transylvanian record lists „una ovis cum agnello et miora”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Candrea–Densusianu quote mieoară from the same Bible (Leviticus 5:6).^[9] Klein's dictionary of 1801 defines it as a two-year-old sheep.^[14] Shepherds use it of a ewe from one to three years old that has not yet lambed or is lambing for the first time; regionally also of a barren ewe or a young doe or she-goat, and more loosely of any sheep.^[2][3][5] Used as an adjective it means “young”: „o ciută mioară” “a young hind” in a folk song.^[4] Modern slang uses it for a teenage girl, and among teenagers for a thousand-lei banknote.^[15]

From Romanian the word passed into Hungarian, where it also came to mean a lamb and a young she-goat.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1548 – Hungarian miora, a loan from Romanian, in a Transylvanian record.^[12]
• 1688 – mioară in the Bucharest Bible (Numbers 6:14).^[11]
• 1801 – “two-year-old sheep” in Klein's dictionary.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda defines it as a sheep of two years.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A young ewe, one to two years old; broadly, a sheep.^[5][2][1]
2. A ewe that has not yet lambed or lambs for the first time.^[2][3]
3. (regional) A barren ewe; a young doe or she-goat of one year.^[2]
4. (slang) A teenage girl; a thousand-lei banknote.^[15]

Adjective

1. (of sheep) young.^[5][2]

Word family

• mioriță
• mior

Related words

• mia
• miel
• Hungarian mióra

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 20
3. ^ 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. mioară
4. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 88
5. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 658
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mioară
7. ^ 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. mia
8. ^ a b c 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. mior
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mior
10. ^ a b 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. 393
11. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Numbers 6:14
12. ^ a b c Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 933
13. ^ a b Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
14. ^ a b 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. 399
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mioară