mistreț

Forms

mistreț m or n (feminine singular mistreață, masculine plural mistreți, feminine/neuter plural mistrețe); as a noun m (plural mistreți)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin mixticius (“of mixed breed”), formed on Latin mixtus (“mixed”), the past participle of misceō (“to mix”).^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary notes that the Latin word occurs in Jerome and Isidore and renders Ancient Greek σύμμεικτος (súmmeiktos, “commingled”).^[1] Tiktin calls the etymon probable;^[5][2] Ciorănescu cites it from Candrea, Candrea–Densusianu and Tiktin, and compares Spanish mestizo.^[5][2]

For the inserted /r/ Ciorănescu compares an Abruzzese verb beside Romanian amesteca, and he finds Pușcariu's Latin *mixturicius unnecessary.^[2] He also rejects Șăineanu's derivation from Albanian mistrec (“dwarf”): following Capidan, the Albanian word comes from Romanian.^[2] The French loan metis goes back to the same Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Klein's dictionary, which he dates 1806.^[5] Klein glosses it with sprinten, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 with Latin pernix, tenuis and parcus, “nimble; thin, scanty”.^[6][7] MDA2 has the related sense “narrow” as rare.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Ciorănescu explains how the senses hang together: the word was said of anything that belongs to two breeds or natures at once, such as weather neither good nor bad, and of wild plants and animals of a kind that is otherwise cultivated or kept, such as the wild apple, măr mistreț, and the wild pig, porc mistreț.^[2] The phrase for the wild pig became the usual name of the boar, and the word is mostly used as a noun in that sense.^[5][4]

The sense “mixed” lives on in popular and regional use: in the Banat it is said of an animal or person of mixed kind, and săptămâna mistreață is the week before Lent, when fast days and meat days alternate.^[5][8] Said of wine and fruit it means “sourish”.^[9][4]

Timeline

• 1806 – Klein's dictionary, the first record.^[5]
• 1825 – glossed “nimble, thin, scanty” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[7]
• 1883 – săptămâna mistreață in Mangiuca's calendar.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. wild boar (Sus scrofa); also porc mistreț.^[4][1]

Adjective

1. (popular) Of mixed breed, hybrid; mixed, motley; by extension middling, neither good nor bad.^[4][3]
2. (of wine or fruit) Sourish;^[4][9] (of fruit) wild.^[4][9]
3. (regional, of hair) Grey.^[3]

Word family

• mistrițat

Related words

• amesteca
• metis
• Latin mixticius

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. mistreț
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 26
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 660
5. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mistreț
6. ^ 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
7. ^ 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. 395
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 815