muiere

Forms

muiere f (plural muieri)^[1] Old texts also have muiare: „Ori muiare iaste, ori bărbat” “whether it be a woman or a man” (Coresi).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mulier (“woman”), from its oblique form mulierem.^{[4][3][5][6][7][1]} Ciorănescu cites Rosetti for the shift of stress.^[4] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian muljari, Megleno-Romanian mul'ari and Istro-Romanian mulere.^[4][8][9][1]

Its Romance cognates include Italian moglie and the older mogliera, Sardinian muzere, Old French moillier, Occitan molher, Catalan muller, Spanish mujer and Portuguese mulher.^[4][10][5] It almost entirely displaced uxor (“wife”).^[10] The origin of the Latin word is uncertain; it was once explained as a comparative of mollis (“soft”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520).^[3] The Codicele Voronețean has the plural: „Muierilor și bărbaților uo mîndrie vestește”.^[2] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has muierea at Psalm 108:8.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The word meant both “woman” and “wife” from the old texts on.^[2][7] It was the ordinary word in the old written language, but in the modern literary language it is popular and often has a pejorative tone.^[4][2][7] Șăineanu noted that it was neutral in Muntenia but disparaging in Moldavia.^[13] Old phrases include muiere slobodă “prostitute”, and a lua de muiere “to take as a wife, to marry” is still regional.^[3]

Many derivatives were formed on it: muieresc “womanly”, muieratic “womanish, given to women”, muieret “womenfolk” and muierușcă, a diminutive that also names a stretcher on the weaving loom.^[4][7]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – muierilor “to the women” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1570 – muierea in Coresi's psalter.^[12]
• 1688 – muierea lui “his wife” in the Book of Genesis in the Bucharest Bible.^[7]
• 1829 – muiere “soaking”, the verbal noun of muia, in Piscupescu.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) A woman.^[14][3][1]
2. (popular) A married woman, a wife.^[14][3][1]
3. (derogatory) A woman of coarse manners, a shrew.^[15]
4. (regional) A girl, a maiden.^[3]

Word family

• muieratic
• muiercană
• muierelnic
• muieresc
• muierește
• muieret
• muieri
• muierie
• muierotcă
• muierușcă

Related words

• Aromanian muljari
• Latin mulier

Usage notes

A separate noun muiere “soaking, wetting, softening” is the verbal noun of muia; in linguistics it also means the palatalisation of a consonant.^[14][2][3] The plural of muiere “woman” is muieri, in old texts also muiare.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. muiere
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 72
4. ^ 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. muiere
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 96
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. muiere
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 197
9. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 127
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5730
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 108:8
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 412
14. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 680
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. muiere