pahar

Forms

pahar n (plural pahare)^[1] Old and regional variants include păhar, păghar, păhariu, pehar, pohar and the contracted paar and par; besides the plural pahare a regional paharuri occurs.^[2][3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 spells it păhar: „Am luat din mâna ta păharul căderii, cupa mâniei meale” “I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, the cup of my wrath” (Isaiah 51:22).^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian pohár;^[3][2][1] DEX 2009, MDA2 and Wiktionary also name Serbo-Croatian pehar.^[3][2][1] Ciorănescu takes it from the South Slavic word of Serbian, Croatian and Slovene, after Miklosich and Cihac, and compares Albanian pehar, Czech pohár and the Hungarian word.^[5][6] Tamás lists the scholars who explain it from Slavic (Cihac, Tiktin, Drăganu) and argues instead for Old Hungarian pahár, the form current until the early 15th century, before its vowel changed to /o/; a Serbian source is unlikely for him on geographical and phonetic grounds, since no Romanian ⟨*pehar⟩ is found anywhere.^[7]

The Hungarian word is a loan from Bavarian Old High German, recorded from 1346 as a surname.^[8][9] Old High German behhari came from Medieval Latin bicarium (“wine or water vessel”), older bacarium, of unclear origin; it is also the source of German Becher.^[10] Scriban groups the Slavic and Hungarian forms with Italian bicchiere under the same German word.^[11] The Albanian word is explained as a Slavic loan, from Serbian.^[12] Bulgarian пахар (pahar) was in turn borrowed from Romanian.^[5][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[2][4] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the articled form păharul “the cup” in Psalms 10, 15 and 22.^[13] The sense from the start is a drinking cup or goblet.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the vessel, the word names its contents, a glassful.^[3] The biblical cup of suffering gave a figurative sense, “grief, suffering”: Tiktin quotes the Bible of 1688 and the prayer of Gethsemane, „treacă de la mine paharul acesta” “let this cup pass from me”.^[4][3] Folk medicine used it for a cupping glass.^[3][14]

At weddings the pahar dulce or pahar de dar is a glass of wine or brandy, sweetened with honey, offered to the guests, who give the couple money in return.^[3][4] A spotless house is kept pahar, “like a glass”.^[3][4] The derivative paharnic “cup-bearer” became the title of a boyar of the princely court who saw to the prince's drink and tasted it before him.^[3] Ciorănescu takes it from Old Church Slavonic пахарьникъ (pacharĭnikŭ), after Drăganu, and finds a Hungarian source in pohárnok less likely.^[5]

Timeline

• 1415 – paharnic “cup-bearer”, the first record of the derivative.^[15]
• c. 1500-1520 – pahar in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record of the word.^[2][4]
• 1570 – păharul in Coresi's psalter.^[16]
• 1581 – paharnic in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[17]
• 1688 – the figurative “cup of staggering” in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]
• 1929 – Șăineanu records the folk-medicine sense “cupping glass”.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drinking glass or cup of glass, metal or plastic, of various shapes and sizes.^[3][2]
2. The contents of such a vessel, a glassful; the glass with its drink: două pahare de lapte “two glasses of milk”.^[3][4]
3. (figurative) grief, suffering, the cup one must drink.^[3][4]
4. (popular) A cupping glass.^[3][14]

Word family

• paharnic
• păhărnicel
• păhărnicie
• păhăruț

Related words

• Hungarian pohár
• Serbo-Croatian pehar

Usage notes

Set phrases include bun de pahar “fond of drink, able to hold one's drink”, la un pahar de vin “over a glass of wine” and a i se umple paharul “to have had more than one can bear”.^[3] Regionally a bea dintr-un pahar cu cineva means to be close friends with someone.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 245
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 762
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pahar
5. ^ 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. pahar
6. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 238
7. ^ a b Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 583
8. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 237
9. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
10. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 100
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 921
12. ^ Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
13. ^ 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 15:5
14. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 454
15. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. paharnic
16. ^ 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 10:7
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. s.v. paharnic