portar

Forms

portar m (plural portari)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian poartă + -ar.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu says it could also continue inherited from Late Latin portārius (“doorkeeper”) directly, as Pușcariu and the REW hold.^[5] Cihac and Șăineanu gave the Latin word too.^[5][6][7][8] The REW lists its Romance relatives: French portier, Catalan porter, Spanish portero and Portuguese porteiro.^[6] poartă continues porta (“gate”).^[6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian purtar.^[9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Slavonic-Romanian document of 1436.^[4] MDA2 dates its first Romanian text to 1640, with the sense “doorkeeper”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the doorkeeper, the word was the title of an office at the princely courts.^[4][2] In Wallachia the great portar received the Turkish guests of the court, and Scriban compares the Ottoman title of the chief doorkeeper.^[4][11] In Moldavia the portar de Suceava defended the capital and the court and later commanded the army, the office later called hatman.^[4][2] Ureche tells of an Alexandru Vodă who had been portar of the fortress of Suceava when he was raised to the throne.^[4][2][12] In sport the word now means a goalkeeper.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1436 – a Slavonic-Romanian document, the first record.^[4]
• 1640 – the first Romanian text in MDA2.^[3]
• c. 1660–1670 – glossing Slavonic вратаръ “gatekeeper” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – portarii in the Bucharest Bible, 1 Chronicles 9:17.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A doorkeeper, a porter: a person who guards the entrance of a building or an institution: Portarul ne-a cerut actele.^[2][1]
2. (historical) A court official in charge of guarding the princely court, with duties of protocol and administration, portar de Suceava “the great officer in charge of the defence of the Moldavian capital, later commander of the army”.^[2][3]
3. (sport) A goalkeeper in football, handball, hockey or water polo.^[2][1]
4. (regional) A bailiff.^[3]

Word family

• portăreasă
• portărel
• portărie

Related words

• poartă
• ușier
• Aromanian purtar
• Latin portārius

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 851
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 475
4. ^ 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. portar
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. poartă
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6673
7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main
8. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 497
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1020
12. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 238
13. ^ 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. portar
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Chronicles 9:17