mior

Forms

mior m (plural miori)^[1] Older mieor and regional meor: Dosoftei's verse Psalter has „Și tămîie cu mieori de-acasă” “and incense, with yearling lambs from home”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian mioară, the feminine noun.^[4][3][2][5]

Ciorănescu, following Tiktin and Rosetti, forms it instead from miel “lamb” with the diminutive suffix -or;^[6][7][1] Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu reconstruct Vulgar Latin *agnelliōlus, from agnellus (“lamb”), which Ciorănescu thinks possible but unnecessary.^[6][7][1] Scriban too derived it from this Latin diminutive.^[8] It is found south of the Danube: Aromanian njior, given by Ciorănescu as miliur, and Megleno-Romanian mil'or.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's verse Psalter, printed in 1673, in the form mieori.^[3][2][7]

Semantic evolution

It names a lamb from one to three years old, the stage after the cârlan; a dialect text says a sheep is miel when small, cârlan at one year and meor at two.^[2][3] Around Hațeg it is a kid of one year.^[2][3] It is a regional word;^[4][9] Moldovan usage has it for a one-year-old lamb.^[4][9]

Ciorănescu lists words borrowed from the Romanian forms: Modern Greek μηλιόρι (milióri), Albanian miljorë, a Sarakatsan Greek form and Hungarian mióra.^[6][10] Wiktionary takes the Albanian word milor from Aromanian miljor.^[1]

Timeline

• 1673 – mieori in Dosoftei's verse Psalter, the first record.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (regional) An older lamb, one to three years old; a noaten.^[4][3][2]
2. (regional) A kid of one year.^[3][2]

Word family

• miorar
• strămior

Related words

• miel
• mia
• cârlan

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 (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mior
3. ^ 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, 21
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 658
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. mior
6. ^ 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. mior
7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mior
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 812
9. ^ a b Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. mior
10. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu