păros

Forms

păros m or n (feminine singular păroasă, masculine plural păroși, feminine/neuter plural păroase)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian păr + -os, from the noun for “hair”.^[2][3][4][5] Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, and Șăineanu took it directly from Latin pilōsus (“hairy”), and Scriban and Wiktionary give both explanations.^{[6][7][8][9][1]} The Latin adjective has the cognates Italian peloso, Occitan pelos, Spanish peloso and Portuguese peloso.^[6][10] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian piros and Megleno-Romanian piros.^[6][11][12] Păr is pilus (“hair”).^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the place name Păroși in a Slavonic charter of 1509.^[4] In Romanian texts MDA2 and the DLR date it to the 1645 translation of Herodotus, where people who are păroși “hairy” wear wreaths and anoint their bodies.^[3][13]

Semantic evolution

Grigore Ureche uses păroși of the Poles who wore their hair long, like the Germans.^[4] The adjective is also applied to fabrics with a fuzzy nap and to plants covered with fine hairs.^[2][3] The saying a spune moși păroși, “to tell of hairy old men”, means to tell tall tales.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1509 – Păroși, a place name in the Slavonic charters.^[4]
• c. 1642–1647 – păroși “long-haired” in Ureche's chronicle.^[4]
• 1645 – păroși “hairy” in the Romanian Herodotus.^[3][13]
• 1660 – păros in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – păros in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people, animals or parts of the body: covered with much hair; hairy;^[2][3][1] un piept păros.^[2][3][1]
2. Of fabrics and things made of them: covered with a fluffy layer of loose fibre ends; fuzzy.^[2][1]
3. Of plants, leaves, flowers and stems: covered with fine hairs; pilose.^[2][3]

Word family

• împăroșa

Related words

• păr
• Aromanian piros
• Latin pilōsus

Usage notes

A spune moși păroși means to tell fanciful stories.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. 789
3. ^ 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, 306
4. ^ 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. păros
5. ^ a b 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. păr
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 111
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 465
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 952
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
11. ^ 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. 1, 141
12. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 848
13. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. păros
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. păros
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 27:11