moale

Forms

moale m or f or n (plural moi)^[1] Besides the usual plural moi, MDA2 records a rare old plural moale.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mollis (“soft”).^{[3][2][4][1][5]} The Latin adjective goes back through Proto-Italic to Proto-Indo-European *ml̥dus (“soft, weak”); de Vaan explains it as an old u-stem remade into an i-stem in Latin.^[6][1]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian moali, Megleno-Romanian moale and Istro-Romanian mole.^[3][7][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian molle, French mou, Occitan mol, Catalan moll and Spanish muelle.^[3][5] Ciorănescu lists a large Romanian family built on it, among them moliciune, molatic and moleși.^[3] For molcel and moleață Candrea and Densusianu proposed Latin mollicellus and mollitia.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name, Moi, in a charter of 1483.^[10] In Romanian texts MDA2 dates the word to Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581, where it already has the physical sense “yielding to pressure”: „ca nește lut moale cîndu-l pleci în voia ta” “like soft clay when you bend it to your will”.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense of something that gives way under pressure is the oldest, and it was soon applied to bedding, earth and food: ouă moi are soft-boiled eggs and icre moi fresh caviar.^[11][10][12] From the touch the word passed to character: in the chronicles that Tiktin quotes it describes weak prospects or a lack of energy, and it now also means “weak-willed, lazy”.^[10][4] Ciorănescu lists “gentle, mild” beside “slack, feeble” and “idle”.^[3]

Used as a neuter noun, moalele is the soft part of a thing, and moalele capului is the fontanel, by extension the crown of the head.^[4][3][12] Regional phrases name other soft places of the body, such as the temple.^[2] The adjective is also said of mild, damp weather, of muted colours and sounds, and in phonetics of a palatalised consonant.^[4][10]

Timeline

• 1483 – Moi, a place name, the first record.^[10]
• 1581 – lut moale “soft clay” in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2][11]
• 1600–1650 – perină moale “a soft pillow” in a text printed by Gaster.^[11]
• 1649 – moale in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• c. 1660 – moalele glossing the Slavonic word for the crown of the head in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – twelve instances of moale in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. soft: giving way easily under pressure and changing its shape; by extension loose, fluffy: o pernă moale.^[4][2]
2. Of food: tender; of eggs, soft-boiled: ou moale; of bread, fresh; of fruit, juicy.^[4]
3. Of ground: damp, moist; of metals, of low hardness.^[4]
4. Of a person or the body: without strength, feeble, exhausted.^[4]
5. Of character: lacking energy or will, apathetic, easily swayed: un om moale.^[4][3]
6. Smooth and pleasant to the touch, silky: păr moale.^[4][16]
7. Of colours, light and sounds: subdued, mellow; of weather: mild and damp.^[4][10]
8. In phonetics, of a consonant: palatalized.^[4]

Noun

1. (only articled) The soft part of a thing;^[4][12] moalele capului “the fontanel”, by extension the crown of the head.^[4][12]

Word family

• moliciune
• molatic
• moleși
• moleșitor
• molâu
• molcel
• molicel
• molicios

Related words

• moină
• moleață
• muia
• Aromanian moali
• Latin mollis

Usage notes

A o lăsa moale means “to give in, to make concessions”, and a-i fi moale or a trăi pe moale “to live an easy life”.^[4][2] A homonymous noun moale is a variant of molie “moth”.^[2][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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, 33
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. moale
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 663
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5649
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 663
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. móle
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 127
10. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. moale
11. ^ 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. moale
12. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 110
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. moale
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. moalele
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 18:7
16. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 823