pădure

Forms

pădure f (plural păduri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin padūlem (“swamp”), a form with metathesis of palūdem (“swamp, marsh”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]}

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian pădure, and Megleno-Romanian păduri only in a place name.^[2][8][9] The form with metathesis is also Italian padule, Old Spanish paúl and Old Galician-Portuguese paúl.^[4][5] Everywhere else it means “swamp”, and only Romanian and Albanian pyll (“forest”) have the sense “forest”.^[4][5][1] Ungureanu cites the form from medieval Latin charters of Italy and Spain from the 8th century on.^[10]

Ciorănescu calls a pre-Indo-European origin of the word fanciful.^[2] Șăineanu explains the change of meaning as “marsh” > “marsh with reeds or trees” > “forest”.^[11] Wiktionary links the word with paludă “marsh”, a later borrowing from Latin.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1515, in the Slavonic–Romanian documents.^[12] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has pădure and pădurea in the sense “forest, wood” (Psalm 79).^[13] MDA2 dates its first record to a text of 1560.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “forest” is the only one in the old texts: a deed of 1591 sells land „din vatra satului și din cîmp și … din pădure” “from the village hearth, the field and the forest”, and Ureche tells of an army driven towards a forest.^[7] Regional uses differ: pădure neagră is a fir forest, and in some dialects the word names a grove of willows by a river or an orchard.^[3][7]

De pădure or din pădure means “wild” of plants and animals, and “uncouth” of people.^[6] Figuratively the word names a mass of upright objects, as Eminescu's „păduri de lănci și săbii” “forests of lances and swords”.^[11][6] Proverbs include nu e pădure fără uscături “there is no forest without dead wood”, that is, no one is without faults.^[12]

Timeline

• 1515 – the first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[12]
• early 16th century – pădure in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[13]
• 1560 – the first record in MDA2.^[3]
• 1591 – din pădure in a deed of sale.^[7]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible: „Pădurile lor să le tăiați” “cut down their groves”.^[7]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda lists pădure oprită “forest where cutting is forbidden”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A forest: a large stretch of land covered with trees, with shrubs, herbs, mosses and animals.^[6][1]
2. (figurative) A dense mass of upright objects: o pădure de catarge “a forest of masts”.^[6][15]

Word family

• pădurar
• pădurărie
• pădurărit
• păduratic
• pădurean
• pădureț
• pădurice
• păduros
• împăduri
• despăduri

Related words

• Aromanian pădure
• Albanian pyll
• paludă

Usage notes

A căra lemne în pădure “to carry wood into the forest” means to do something useless.^[6] Parcă ar fi crescut în pădure is said of someone with bad manners.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. pădure
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 292
4. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 108
5. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6183
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 786
7. ^ 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. pădure
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 822
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 212
10. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 347
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 453
12. ^ 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. pădure
13. ^ a b 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 79:14
14. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 476
15. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 947