negură

Forms

negură f (plural neguri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin nebula (“mist, fog”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin noun goes back to *nebʰ-e-lo- (“small cloud”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek νεφέλη (nephélē, “cloud”).^[6]

The /g/ for Latin /b/ needs explaining.^[2] Ciorănescu compares other changes of a labial to /g/, as in neg from naevus and rug from rubus.^[2] Pușcariu and the REW explain it by a blend of the Latin word with niger (“black”), supported by the sense “darkness”;^[7][8] Pascu sets up a form *negula on the same grounds.^[9] Ciorănescu finds Candrea's *nigrula unlikely.^[2]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian negurã.^[2][10][1] The Romance cognates include Italian nebbia, Occitan neula, Spanish niebla and Portuguese névoa.^[2][8] Ciorănescu also compares Albanian negulj, a form of mjegull (“mist”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 147:5, where God spreads the mist like ashes; the verse has the word in every 16th-century psalter.^[11][3][12]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is thick fog, usually in the plural with the value of a singular.^[4][13] From the fog's darkness came “gloom, darkness”, already among Pușcariu's glosses, and figurative uses such as the mists of time or of the mind.^[7][13][12] A rare figurative sense is “a huge mass, a multitude”.^[4] In Muntenia it can also mean the black of soot on a burnt wall.^[14]

Old texts have diminutives: neguriță in Dosoftei and negurice.^[12] The derivatives include the verb (în)negura “to become foggy, to darken”, negureală “fog” and neguros “foggy, gloomy”.^[2] The word was borrowed as Ukrainian негура (nehura).^[1]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – negura in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 147:5), the first record.^[11][3]
• c. 1551–1558 – the same verse in the Psaltirea Voronețeană.^[11]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[11][12]
• 1682–1686 – the diminutive neguriță in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. Thick fog, forming especially in the morning and evening and greatly reducing visibility; negureală.^[4][3][1]
2. darkness, gloom; obscurity.^[4][13]
3. (figurative, rare) A huge multitude or mass of beings or things.^[4]

Word family

• negureală
• neguros
• negura

Related words

• Aromanian negurã
• Latin nebula

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. negură
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 128
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. 703
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. negură
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 101
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5865
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, p. 1, 125
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 748
11. ^ a b c d 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 147:5
12. ^ 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. negură
13. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 189
14. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. negură