noros

Forms

noros m or n (feminine singular noroasă, masculine plural noroși, feminine/neuter plural noroase)^[1] Old and Moldavian texts write nuoros and nouros: „vreame turbure că să ruşiaște ceriul nuoros” “foul weather, for the cloudy sky is red”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian nor + -os “cloud” with the adjective suffix.^{[3][4][2][5][6]} The noun is inherited from Latin nūbilus (“cloudy”).^[6] Candrea and Densusianu took the adjective from nūbilōsus, its sound shape influenced by the noun, and compared Italian nuvoloso, Catalan nuvolós and Spanish nubloso.^[7] Wiktionary allows that it may correspond to the Late Latin word.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the New Testament of 1648, at Matthew 16:3: „ceriul nuoros” “the cloudy sky”.^[4][5][2]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense is of a sky, day or weather full of clouds.^[2][3] A calendar of 1814 describes the beginning of winter as windy and the middle cloudy.^[2] Figuratively it is said of gloomy people and of a sad look or brow, as in Macedonski's „fruntea sa noroasă”.^[8][3] Rarely it means “unclear, obscure”.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1648 – nuoros “cloudy” in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[4][2]
• 1688 – noros in the Bucharest Bible (Deuteronomy 33:28).^[9]
• 1814 – a calendar describes a cloudy midwinter.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. cloudy, overcast: of the sky, a day or the weather; the same as înnorat.^[3][1]
2. (figurative) gloomy, sad: of people, or of a face or look.^[3][4]
3. (figurative, rare) unclear, confused, obscure.^[3]

Related words

• nor
• înnorat
• Latin nūbilus

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. noros
3. ^ 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. 721
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 168
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. noros
6. ^ a b 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. nor
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 201
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 221
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Dt 33:28