morar

Forms

morar m (plural morari)^[1] Old and regional texts write murar: a deed of 1702 speaks of „Ion Ungurianului, carele iaste murar” “Ion Ungurianu, who is a miller”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian moară + -ar.^[4][5][6] moară is from Latin mola (“millstone, mill”).^[5]

Pușcariu and Candrea and Densusianu took it straight from Latin molārius (“of a mill”), and MDA2, Tiktin, Scriban and Wiktionary give both explanations.^{[5][7][3][8][9][1]} The Latin adjective, formed on the noun, is used by Cato and Varro of the ass that turns a mill.^[10][11] The word has cognates south of the Danube, Aromanian murar and Megleno-Romanian murar, which Papahagi and Pascu take from the Latin word.^[12][13] Romance has Old French molier and Catalan moler.^[13][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a place name, the mountain Muntele Morariul, in a document of 1520.^[8] As a common noun it glosses a Slavonic word for a miller in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660–1670.^[14] MDA2's first record is the form murar in a deed of 1702.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

The main sense is the owner or keeper of a mill, and then any mill worker; in modern use also a worker in a plant that grinds other materials.^[4][3] It also names the mealworm beetle that lives in mills and granaries, a Bukovinian name according to Șăineanu.^[4][15] The proverbial crapă morarul de sete “the miller dies of thirst” is said of people who cannot use what they have in plenty.^[3] With the article, morarul is also a folk dance and its tune.^[3] In recent slang it means a drug dealer.^[16]

The word gave the surname Morar, with Morariu and Murar, recorded in Transylvania from 1680.^[17][1] Bulgarian has a surname formed on it.^[1]

Timeline

• 1520 – the place name Muntele Morariul, the first record.^[8]
• c. 1660–1670 – morar “miller” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1680 – the surname Morariu in Transylvania.^[17]
• 1702 – murar “miller” in a deed.^[3][2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A miller: the owner or keeper of a mill; a worker in a mill.^[4][1]
2. A worker in a plant that grinds various materials.^[4]
3. The mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor.^[4][3][1]
4. (slang) A drug dealer.^[16]

Word family

• morăreasă
• morăriță
• morăresc
• morărie
• morări

Related words

• moară
• Aromanian murar
• Latin molārius

Usage notes

Regionally morar is also a form of mărar “dill”.^[3][18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. morar
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 54
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 673
5. ^ 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. moară
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. morar
8. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. morár
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 832
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
12. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 715
13. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 120
14. ^ a b 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. morar
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 408
16. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. morar
17. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. morar
18. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. morár