oaie

Forms

oaie f (plural oi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ovis (“sheep”), from its accusative ⟨ovem⟩.^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The Latin word continues *h₂ówis (“sheep”), or *h₃éwis, and is cognate with Ancient Greek ὄϊς (óïs) and English ewe.^[1][7] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian oai, Megleno-Romanian oaiă and Istro-Romanian oie.^[2][8][9] Romanian alone of the Romance languages kept the word; elsewhere it was given up because it was confused with ōvum (“egg”), as Wartburg showed.^[2]

Candrea and Densusianu expected the Latin form to give ⟨*oauă⟩ and took the singular as rebuilt from the plural ⟨oi⟩, on the model of foaie;^[10][2] Ciorănescu holds that the sounds are regular and that this explanation is not right.^[10][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1341, a place name in a Transylvanian record.^[11] In Romanian texts it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century): „Oile lor multu se-au plodit” “their sheep multiplied greatly”.^[5][3] The Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583) has „erați ca oile rătăcindu” “ye were as sheep going astray”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word names the domestic sheep and, more precisely, the grown ewe as against the ram, berbec.^[3][4] Church language calls the faithful the flock of their priest: oile are Christians.^[4][2] As a figure the sheep stands for meekness, and for dullness: a o face de oaie “to blunder”, deștept ca oaia said ironically of a simpleton.^[4][12] Slang uses it for a foolish woman.^[13] A tax on sheep, the oierit, and the old oaie-seacă tax of 1573 take their names from the word.^[2]

Timeline

• 1341 – a place name in a Transylvanian record, the first record.^[11]
• c. 1500–1520 – oile in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5][14]
• c. 1563–1583 – ca oile rătăcindu in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1573 – the oaie-seacă tax.^[2]
• 1688 – Iacov păștea oile lui Lavan “Jacob fed Laban's flocks” in the Bucharest Bible, Genesis 30:36.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sheep, the domestic ruminant raised for wool, milk and meat; specifically the ewe.^[4][3][1]
2. Mutton; sheepskin.^[4]
3. (religion, chiefly in the plural) A believer in relation to the priest; a Christian.^[4]
4. (figurative, derogatory) A dull, narrow-minded person.^[15]
5. (slang) A foolish woman.^[13]

Word family

• oier
• oierit
• oiesc
• oiță

Related words

• Aromanian oai
• Latin ovis

Usage notes

The plural is oi.^[4] Common phrases include ca oile “in a crowd, in disorder”, a suge la două oi “to profit from two sides at once” and a umbla să iei două piei de pe o oaie “to seek an excessive gain”.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. oaie
3. ^ 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, 179
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 727
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. oaie
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6127
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. 769
9. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. oie
10. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. oaie
11. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. oaie
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 882
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. oaie
14. ^ 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 8:7
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. oaie