noră

Forms

noră f (plural nurori, masculine equivalent ginere)^[1] Ispirescu has the variant nuroră, made on the plural: „Își îmbrățișară copiii și nurora” “they embraced their children and their daughter-in-law”.^[2][3] Șincai wrote nuoră: „Ringala au fost nuoră, nu muiere lui Alecsandru” “Ringala was the daughter-in-law, not the wife, of Alexander”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *norus, the popular form of Latin nurus (“daughter-in-law”).^[4][5] The DEX, MDA2, the DLR and Tiktin give the Classical form as the etymon.^[6][7][3][2] The vowel /o/ for Latin /u/ is usually put down to the influence of socrus (“mother-in-law”) or soror (“sister”).^[5][2] The Romanian plural ⟨nurori⟩ follows ⟨surori⟩, the plural of soră.^[4][2][1]

The old form was ⟨nor⟩, which survives before possessives: ⟨noru-mea⟩, ⟨noru-sa⟩.^[4][2] Tiktin takes ⟨noră⟩ from the articled ⟨nora⟩, and Wiktionary from ⟨nor⟩ with a feminine ending.^[2][1] Wiktionary notes that a Latin *nora, the source of most Romance forms, would have given Romanian ⟨noară⟩, with a diphthong;^[1] Ciorănescu also points to the lack of a diphthong.^[1][4]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian norã, older noru, and Megleno-Romanian noră.^[4][8][9] Its Romance cognates include Italian nuora, Old French nuere, Occitan nora, Spanish nuera and Portuguese nora, and Sardinian nura continues the variant nura.^[4][5][10] The Latin noun continues Proto-Indo-European *snusós, remade as a u-stem after the word for “mother-in-law”; its cognates include Ancient Greek νυός (nuós), Sanskrit स्नुषा (snuṣā́) and Old English snoru.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1560, in Coresi's Pravila.^[2] MDA2's first record is Coresi's homily book of 1581: „a împărți feciorul de tată-său și fată de mumă-sa și nor de soacră-sa” “to part the son from his father, the daughter from her mother and the daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law”, with the old form nor.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning “son's wife” has stayed the same since the first texts.^[3][6] In the Banat the word, also as noră de frate, means “sister-in-law”, and Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian forms have this sense too.^[7][5][8] The tension between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law shows in folk speech: Creangă's tale Soacra cu trei nurori “The mother-in-law with three daughters-in-law” takes it as its subject.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – Coresi's Pravila, the first record.^[2]
• 1581 – nor de soacră-sa in Coresi's homily book.^[7][3]
• 1581 – noru-sa in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3]
• 1688 – the plural nurorile in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. daughter-in-law: a son's wife, as seen by his parents.^[6][7][1]
2. (Banat) sister-in-law, also noră de frate.^[7]

Related words

• Aromanian norã
• Latin nurus

Usage notes

The plural is nurori; the genitive-dative is nurorii, colloquially norei, and with a possessive noru-mea, noru-sa or noră-mea.^[14][2] The phrase a intrat nora-n blide “the daughter-in-law has got into the dishes” is said of a woman who is clumsy at housework.^[6][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. noră
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. noră
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. noră
5. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6000
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 720
7. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 165
8. ^ a b 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, 128
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 208
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
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. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. noră
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ruth 1:7
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 219