noiembrie

Forms

noiembrie m (uncountable)^[1] The old texts write noiemvrie: Ureche's chronicle has „noiemvrie în 25” “on 25 November”.^[2] Tiktin also lists the old forms noievrie, noiemvre and noiembre.^[3] Noiemvrie is still a variant today;^[4][5] novembre is old and regional.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic ноѩбр҄ь (nojębrĭ), the Slavonic name of the month used in the church calendar, which also appears as ноѥмврий (nojemvrij).^{[6][4][2][3][1]} The Slavonic word is from Byzantine Greek Νοέμβριος (Noémbrios), from Latin November.^[7][1][8] Wiktionary gives the Latin source as Novembrius, an altered form of the classical name.^[1] The Latin name comes from novem (“nine”), since November was the ninth month of the Roman calendar.^[9]

The Old Church Slavonic manuscripts spell the name in many ways, among them ноѫбръ (nojǫbrŭ) and ноѥмбрь (nojembrĭ), and use it to render the Greek month name.^[8] The old Romanian form noiemvrie matches the Slavonic forms with /v/; the spelling with /b/ is recorded from the 1830s.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1508.^[3] In a Romanian text it is first found in the Paraclis of 1639, in the form noiemvrie.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has always been the month itself, the eleventh of the year, often in the phrases luna noiembrie and luna lui noiembrie.^[2][6] The chroniclers of the 17th and 18th centuries used it to date events, and almanacs gave the farming work for each month: Antim advises cutting firewood in August, September or November.^[2] Popular speech has native names for the month, which Pamfile collected: brumar and brumărel “the month of hoarfrost”, promorar, vinicer or luna vinurilor “the month of wine”, and iezmăciune “the month of holy water”.^[2][4]

Timeline

• 1508 – first record.^[3]
• 1639 – noiemvrie in the Paraclis.^[6][2]
• c. 1642–1647 – noiemvrie in Ureche's chronicle of Moldavia.^[2]
• 1832 – the spelling noiembrie with ⟨b⟩ in a periodical.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. November, the eleventh month of the year, after octombrie; popularly brumar: Ne-am întâlnit pe 3 noiembrie.^[4][6][1]

Related words

• brumar
• Latin November

Usage notes

The month's name is invariable and is used with or without luna “the month”: în noiembrie, în luna noiembrie.^[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 j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. noiembrie
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. noiembrie
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. 719
5. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 218
6. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 163
7. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 3, 87
8. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
9. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org