mugi

Forms

mugi (third-person singular present mugește or muge, past participle mugit), 4th conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mūgiō (“to low, bellow”).^{[3][2][4][5][6][1]} DER cites Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the REW for this etymology.^[3][7] It survives as Aromanian mudzescu too.^[3][8][9] Romance cognates are Italian muggire, Sardinian muire (Logudorese) and Old French muire;^[3][7][10] Nocentini considers French mugir and Spanish mugir to be taken from Latin later.^[11]

The Latin verb is an imitation of a cow's lowing, from Proto-Indo-European *mug-, also reconstructed with a long vowel.^[12][1] Cognates are Ancient Greek μυκάομαι (mūkáomai, “to low, bellow”), Lithuanian mūkti (“to bellow”) and Russian мычать (myčátʹ, “to moo”).^[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where a hind bellows: „O ciută ... mugi”.^[4][5] Tiktin, who dates it 1683, quotes from the same work a lion that „mirosindu-i mormântul ... mugind cu jele” “sniffing at his grave ... roared in grief”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

Used first of cattle, the verb was soon applied to other animals, the stag in the rut and, regionally, a swarm of bees that buzzes.^[4][5][13] From animals it passed to people who shout loudly, as in Negruzzi's Lăpușneanul „mugind ca un taur” “bellowing like a bull”, to waters and wind that roar, to instruments that make a loud noise, and to guns that boom.^[13][4][2] Șincai used the rhyming phrase nici îi fuge, nici îi muge of someone who does not care at all about a matter.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1682 – first record, in Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686).^[5][4]
• 1801 – Mugesc in Klein's dictionary, with Latin mugio and German brüllen.^[14]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it French mugir, beugler.^[15]
• 1893–1895 – Damé gives the third person mugesce “bellows”.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of cattle and other horned animals) To moo, low, bellow.^[2][1]
2. (of people) To shout loudly, to roar, howl.^[2][5]
3. (of instruments and tools) To make a loud, unpleasant noise when struck or rubbed;^[2][5] (of guns) to boom.^[2][5]
4. (of water and wind) To roar, howl.^[2][1]
5. (regional, of a swarm of bees) To buzz.^[5][4]

Word family

• muget
• mugitor
• mugire

Related words

• Aromanian mudzescu
• Latin mūgiō

Usage notes

Besides mugește, the third person singular present has an older form muge, which Eminescu and Coșbuc use: Joiana muge “the cow is lowing”.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 680
3. ^ 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. mugi
4. ^ 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. mugi
5. ^ 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, 71
6. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mugi
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5719
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ 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
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mugi
11. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
12. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 138
14. ^ 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)
15. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 452
16. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État