pietros

Forms

pietros m or n (feminine singular pietroasă, masculine plural pietroși, feminine/neuter plural pietroase)^[1] Nicolae Costin's chronicle has the form petros: „au întrat cu oștile sale în munți … în loc tare, petros” “he went with his armies into the mountains, into a strong, stony place”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian piatră + -os, as DEX, MDA2, the DLR and Tiktin give it.^[4][5][2][3] MDA2 and the DLR compare Latin petrōsus (“rocky”), and Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and Ciorănescu allow that the word may continue the Latin adjective directly.^{[5][2][6][7][1]} The Latin adjective is formed on petra (“rock, stone”).^[8]

The Aromanian adjective is chitros, which may be a derivative of cheatrã or the Latin word.^[6][7][1] Pușcariu compares Italian pietroso, Occitan peiros, French pierreux and Spanish petroso.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1503 in the Slavo-Romanian documents.^[3] MDA2 and the DLR start with Nicolae Costin's chronicle, where a ruler leads his army into stony mountain ground.^[5][2] A figurative use is already recorded in 1683, when Job's gentle words soften the “stony hearts” of his friends, „inimile pietroase”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is “full of stones”, of ground and roads; for soil it also means barren because of the stones.^[4][5] From hardness came “hard as stone” and, of people and animals, “sturdy, robust”: Tiktin quotes a breeding stallion called pietros, and Damé glosses un cal pietros as a horse that does not tire.^[3][9] Of fruit it means firm-fleshed, and cireșe pietroase are a cherry variety with firm flesh.^[4]

Some senses are regional or old: a harsh, astringent taste of wine and fruit, recorded in Muntenia for a heavy wine, a south wind called pietrosul, and a name of small gudgeons.^[5][10]

Timeline

• 1503 – in the Slavo-Romanian documents, Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 1683 – „inimile pietroase” “the stony hearts”, a figurative use.^[2][3]
• 1893 – Damé records cireșe pietroase “firm cherries” and the sense “tireless” of a horse.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of ground or roads: stony, full of stones; of soil, containing stone and barren because of it.^[4][5][1]
2. Hard as stone; by extension strong, sturdy, robust.^[4][5]
3. Of fruit: having firm, fleshy pulp;^[10] cireșe pietroase are a cherry variety with firm flesh.^[4]
4. (old, regional) Of wine or fruit: astringent, slightly bitter.^[5][10]

Word family

• pietroșel
• împietroșa

Related words

• piatră
• Aromanian chitros
• Latin petrōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pietros
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pietros
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 817
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 378
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 115
7. ^ 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. piatră
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 2
10. ^ a b c Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. 318