pălărie

Forms

pălărie f (plural pălării)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Italian cappelleria, borrowed early and with its first syllable lost;^[2][3][4][1] P. Panaitescu proposed this, and DER, DLR and MDA2 accept it.^[2][3][4][1] Wiktionary still calls the origin unknown.^[1] Ciorănescu finds the other explanations unsatisfactory: Tiktin's formation from păr “hair” with the suffix -ărie and /l/ from /r/ by dissimilation, a Greek origin proposed by Diculescu, and Scriban's Vulgar Latin *pariolum “small cauldron”, the source of Italian paiuolo.^[2][5][6] Cihac had derived it from a Latin *pilearia, from pileus (“felt cap”).^[7]

The word passed from Romanian into Bulgarian паларѝя (palarija), a dated and dialect word for a wide-brimmed hat.^[2][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1700, in the Lexicon Marsilianum.^[5] DLR's first quotation is from Nicolae Costin's chronicle, where a bullet passes through the hat on a man's head: „Pin pălăria ce era în capul său... un glonț au trecut”.^[3] MDA2 gives this record the year 1601, which is the closing year in the chronicle's title, not the date of the text.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Beside the hat itself, the word names hat-shaped things: the cap of a mushroom, the head of a sunflower, a lampshade, the metal cap of an oil lamp.^[9] Plant names follow the same image: pălăria-cucului is a cranesbill (Geranium), and pălăria-șarpelui names the fly agaric and other toadstools in Moldavia.^[5][4] Familiar idioms include a lovi pe cineva în pălărie “to touch someone's sore spot, to hit with a sharp word or unwelcome news”, which Tiktin quotes from Creangă.^[5][9][4] Regional phrases are a azvârli cu pălăria după lună “to act rashly” and a avea casa sub pălărie “to be very poor”; of a wife, a purta pălăria means to rule the house.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1700 – first record, in the Lexicon Marsilianum.^[5]
• 1799 – „Pălăria lui au fost pătrunsă de un glonț” in an Alexandria.^[3]
• 1817 – palarii de mătase “silk hats” in a document published by Iorga.^[3]
• 1870 – Bulgarian паларѝя in a story by Blăskov.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A hat: a head covering with a crown and usually a brim, made of felt, straw, cloth and so on.^[9][4][1]
2. Something shaped like a hat: the cap of a mushroom, the disc of a sunflower, a lampshade.^[9]
3. (botany) in plant names: pălăria-cucului, a cranesbill;^[4][5] pălăria-șarpelui, the fly agaric and some other fungi.^[4][5]

Word family

• pălărier
• pălărierie
• pălăriuță

Usage notes

The diminutives are pălăriuță and pălărioară.^[5][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. pălărie
3. ^ 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. pălărie
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 296
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pălăríe
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 190
8. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 22
9. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 787