orez

Forms

orez m (uncountable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Bulgarian ориз (oriz, “rice”) according to DEX, MDA2 and the Academy dictionary.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu's source is Modern Greek ορύζι (orýzi) instead, partly through Old Church Slavonic оризъ (orizŭ), and compares Albanian oris and Serbo-Croatian oriz;^[5] Tiktin also lists the Greek, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Albanian forms.^[6][7][5] Tiktin finds the ⟨e⟩ of the Romanian word surprising;^[8][9] Ciorănescu suggests that the ending was taken for the suffix -ez of chinez and francez.^[6][7]

The Greek word goes back to Ancient Greek ὄρυζα (óruza) of Hellenistic times, a word of eastern origin, from Persian according to Babiniotis.^[8][9] Cihac traced all the European forms to Arabic.^[10] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian uriz, which Pascu derives from Greek.^[11][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, where the word glosses the Slavonic name of coriander.^[7][13] MDA2 dates it from about 1650.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word names the plant (Oryza sativa) and its grain, and in the plural orezuri sorts of rice;^[3] DEX adds the dish made of it.^[2][3] Regional forms are oriz in Banat and Transylvania and urez and hurez in Transylvania and Oltenia;^[3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 has hurez.^[6][3][7] Romanian formed orezărie “rice field”, first recorded in 1857.^[3]

Timeline

• 1649 – first record, in Mardarie's lexicon.^[7][13]
• c. 1650 – MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1801 – the regional form hurez in Klein's dictionary.^[7]
• 1857 – orezărie “rice field” in Polizu's dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine) rice: a cereal grass grown in wet, warm lands for its nourishing grains rich in starch (Oryza sativa); also its grains.^[2][3][1]
2. (neuter) A dish made of rice.^[2]
3. (neuter, plural orezuri) A sort of rice.^[2][3]

Word family

• orezărie

Usage notes

The plant and its grains are masculine; the dish and the sorts of rice are neuter, with the plural orezuri.^[2][14] A separate word orez is a variant of huhurez “tawny owl”.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 749
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 223
4. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. orez
5. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 921
6. ^ a b c 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. orez
7. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. orez
8. ^ a b Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1057
9. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, p. s.v. όρυζα
10. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 230
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1091
12. ^ 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. 2, 98
13. ^ a b 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. orez
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 908