must

Forms

must n (plural musturi)^[1] A regional variant most occurs: „Nice un firtari de most n-au ieșit din struguri” “not one firkin of must came out of the grapes” (1864).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin mustum (“new wine, must”).^{[3][4][5][6][1]} Candrea and Densusianu give the same etymon.^[7]

It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian mustu and Megleno-Romanian most.^[3][8][9] Albanian mušt is also a loan from the Latin word.^[3][10] The Romance cognates include Italian mosto, French moût, Catalan most, Spanish mosto and Portuguese mosto.^[3][5] The adjective mustos continues *mustōsus.^[11]

The regional variant most is from German Most, and mușt is from Hungarian must.^[2][12][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1560.^[14] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss Slavonic words with must, Mardarie's of 1649 first.^[15] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 compares a swollen belly to a wineskin of fermenting must: „Pântecele mieu ca un foale de must ce fiarbe iaste legat”.^[2][16]

Semantic evolution

From the juice of crushed grapes the word was extended to the juice of other fruit and plants: an 18th-century manuscript has must de lămâie “lemon juice”.^[14][6] It also names the sap of trees, the liquid that drains from manure, and the water that soaks the ground when snow melts, mustul omătului.^[6][14][2] Ciorănescu adds “cider”.^[3]

Romanian formed the verb musti “to ooze with juice”, mustar “seller of must” and mustărie “wine shop” from it.^[3]

Timeline

• 1560 – first record.^[14]
• 1649 – must in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1682–1686 – must in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[12]
• 1688 – must in the Bucharest Bible.^[16]
• 1749 – must de lămâie “lemon juice” in a manuscript.^[14]
• 1864 – the variant most.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. must: sweet grape juice that has not yet begun to ferment, pressed from crushed grapes and, by extension, from other fruit or plants.^[6][1]
2. The juice that some fruits contain.^[6]
3. The sap of trees.^[6]
4. (popular) The liquid that drains from cattle dung.^[6]
5. The water that soaks the ground after the snow melts.^[6]

Word family

• musti
• mustit
• mustitor
• mustar
• mustărie
• mustăreață
• mustometru
• mustuială

Related words

• zeamă
• suc
• Aromanian mustu
• Latin mustum

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. must
3. ^ 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. must
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 98
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5783
6. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 684
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. must
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 718
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 196
10. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5784
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 83
13. ^ Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 557
14. ^ 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. must
15. ^ 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. must
16. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iov 32:19