naie

Forms

naie f (plural năi)^[1]

Etymology

Ciorănescu takes it as inherited from Latin nāvis (“ship”), from the accusative, following Pușcariu and the REW.^[2][3] Wiktionary also has it inherited.^[1] DLR, MDA2 and DLRM instead treat it as a learned word, borrowed from Latin nāvis.^[4][5] DLRM labels the source literary Latin.^[4][5][6] Its doublet is navă, a 19th-century loan from Latin.^[2][1]

The Latin noun comes from Proto-Indo-European *néh₂us (“ship”).^[1][7] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian nai “ship”.^[8][1] The Romance cognates include Sardinian nae, French nef, Catalan nau and Spanish nave.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DLR's earliest citation is Polizu's dictionary (1857).^[4] The first text is the periodical Familia of 1871: „Mulțimea așteaptă naia” “the crowd is waiting for the ship”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

Dictionaries of the late 19th century list it for a ship, and Barcianu gives it with phrases for merchant ships, warships and steamers.^[4][9] Folk verse collected by Sevastos has a storm that overturned the ships, naiele.^[4][10] In Transylvania it is the church word for the nave, where the men stand, as in Agârbiceanu.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1857 – Polizu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1871 – naia “the ship” in Familia.^[4][5]
• 1886 – Barcianu's dictionary, with naie de resbel “warship”.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated, regional) A ship, a sailing vessel.^[5][6][1]
2. (Transylvania) The nave of a church, the naos.^[5][4]

Related words

• navă
• Aromanian nai

Usage notes

The plural is naie or năi.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. naie
3. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5863
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. naie
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 92
6. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 526
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 694
9. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 400
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 158