moară

Forms

moară f (plural mori)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mola (“millstone; mill”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *melh₂- (“to grind, crush”).^[1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian moarã and Megleno-Romanian moară.^[2][6][7] The Romance cognates are Italian mola, Occitan mola, Catalan mola, French meule and Spanish muela, which mostly mean “millstone”.^[2][8]

morar “miller” is a Romanian formation with the suffix -ar for Ciorănescu;^[3] Pușcariu and Candrea and Densusianu take it from Latin molārius.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1551–1553, in a Gospel text (Matthew 18:6).^[9] MDA2 dates it to before 1588, in a text published in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the installation for grinding grain and the building that houses it: moară de apă, de vânt, cu aburi are water, wind and steam mills.^[9][10] From the grain mill it passed to machines that grind hard materials such as ore, and in the old language to a factory.^[10] Regionally it is the board game nine men's morris, and in slang a watch.^[10][2]

The noisy mill gave a figure for a chattering mouth: a-i merge gura ca o moară is to talk on and on, and a moară hodorogită is a chatterbox.^[10][9] Other phrases are ca la moară “in turn”, a da apă la moară cuiva “to give someone an advantage”, and a se lupta cu morile de vânt “to fight windmills”.^[10] A place name Mori is recorded in 1625.^[9]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – moară in a Gospel text, Tiktin's first record.^[9]
• before 1588 – a text in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1625 – the place name Mori.^[9]
• 1688 – morii “of the mill” in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A mill: an installation for grinding grain; the building that houses it.^[10][3][1]
2. (disparaging) The mouth as the organ of speech; a person who chatters without stop.^[10]
3. A machine or plant for grinding hard materials such as ore or chemicals.^[10]
4. (dated) A factory in which raw material was crushed or kneaded.^[10]
5. (regional) nine men's morris, the board game called țintar.^[10][1]
6. (slang) A watch.^[2]

Word family

• morar
• morăreasă
• morăriță
• morăresc
• morărie
• morărit
• morări
• morișcă

Related words

• Aromanian moarã
• Latin mola

Usage notes

The plural is mori; an old plural moare is rare.^[3] Moară is also a form of the verb muri “to die” (să moară “may he die”), a separate word.^[12]

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. moară
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 34
4. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. moară
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5641
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 700
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 193
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 169
9. ^ 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. moară
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 663
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. A DOUA LEAGE 24:6
12. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org