oraș

Forms

oraș n (plural orașe)^[1] Old texts also have uraș: „Au pus și pecetea urașului” “they also set the seal of the town” (a document of 1610).^[2][3] A regional plural is orașuri.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian város (“town, city”).^{[4][2][3][5][6][1]} Miklosich and Cihac gave this etymology.^[4] Tamás lists the later literature.^[6] The Hungarian word is a derivative of vár (“castle, fortress”) with the adjective suffix -s, first váras; it named the settlements around a castle and is recorded in place names from 1193.^[7][8]

The Hungarian word spread to the Balkans as well: Serbo-Croatian varoš, Albanian varroš, Modern Greek βαρόσι (varósi) and Turkish varoş (“suburb”).^[4][9] Romanian has the later form separately as varoș “suburb”, which Mândrescu and Tamás take to have come from south of the Danube.^[6][10] Tiktin thought of Turkish.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1431, in a Slavonic document from the Romanian lands, and Ciorănescu finds the derivative orășan “townsman” in such a document of 1439.^[11][4] The first Romanian text is a letter of 1521, which warns that fifty men are being taken from every town for the ships: „bagă den toate orașele câte 50 de omin”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old language oraș named a smaller town, and cetate a larger, fortified one.^[11][10] Mândrescu notes that cetate was used rather for a castle or fortress;^[3][10] oraș is the general word for a town or city, beside the bookish urbe and târg “market town”.^[3][10] By extension it names the people of a town (tot orașul “the whole town”) and, by restriction, the town centre: a merge în oraș “to go into town”.^[5][9]

The phrase de oraș “of the town” is opposed to de țară “of the country”, as in haine de oraș “town clothes”, better than work clothes or cut in the town fashion.^[12][5] A popular saying a trăi ca vițelul la oraș means “to live very badly”, and de-a orașul is a regional name for the ball game oină.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1431 – the first record, in a Slavonic document.^[11]
• 1439 – orășan “townsman” in a Slavonic-Romanian document.^[4]
• 1521 – orașele “the towns” in a Romanian letter.^[2][3]
• c. 1550 – „să ducu în orașe și în cetăți” “they go into towns and cities”.^[2][11]
• 1581 – orășean “townsman” in the Palia of 1581.^[13]
• 1610 – the variant uraș.^[2]
• 1649 – oraș in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – oraș throughout the Gospels of the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A town or city: a large settlement with many inhabitants, usually an administrative, industrial, commercial and cultural centre;^[5][3][1] de oraș “urban, of the town”.^[5][3][1]
2. (by restriction) The town centre: Mă duc în oraș după-amiază.^[5][16]
3. The inhabitants of a town: Tot orașul vorbea despre asta.^[5][9]

Word family

• orășenesc
• orășenește
• orășenime
• orășean
• orășel

Related words

• cetate
• urbe
• Hungarian város

Usage notes

Haine de oraș are clothes better than work clothes, or clothes in the town fashion.^[5][3] The neuter plural is orașe;^[3] orașuri is regional.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. oraș
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 219
4. ^ a b c d e 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. oraș
5. ^ 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. 747
6. ^ a b c d Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 579
7. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 1093
8. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, p. s.v. város
9. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 906
10. ^ a b c d Mândrescu, Simion (1892), Elemente ungurești în limba română, București: Tipografia Carol Göbl, p. 181
11. ^ 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. oraș
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 277
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 220
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. oraș
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthew 21:17
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. oraș