praf

Forms

praf n (plural prafuri)^[1] The old form is prah: the New Testament of 1648 has „prahul den picioarele voastre scuturați” “shake the dust off your feet”.^[2][3] Prav is the form of Moldavia and Transylvania, used by Dosoftei and Cantemir; the Banat has prau.^[4][2] MDA2 also records regional pra, praj and praure.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic прахъ (praxŭ, “dust”), which the older form prah still shows.^{[4][5][1][2][3]} The Slavonic word, in the Gospels and the Psalter for “dust, ash”, continues Proto-Slavic *pȏrxъ (“dust”), which gave Bulgarian прах (prah), Serbo-Croatian prah, Czech prach and Russian порох (porox, “gunpowder”).^[6][7][4][8] Wiktionary takes it back to Proto-Indo-European *pers- (“to sprinkle”).^[1] Capidan derives the form Megleno-Romanian prau of south of the Danube from Bulgarian.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, as prahul: the ungodly are like the dust that the wind drives away (Psalm 1:4), and Psalm 34 asks that the enemies be as dust before the wind.^[10][5][3]

Semantic evolution

Romanian kept the Slavonic sense “dust, fine earth”, and extended it to any fine powder: medicines (prafuri “doses of powder”), sugar or quinine, and the gunpowder of firearms, praf de pușcă.^[11][4][12] Biblical images of dust and ashes gave idioms of ruin: a face praf “to smash, to destroy”, a se alege praful “to be wiped out”.^[3][11] The phrase a arunca praf în ochii cuiva “to throw dust in someone's eyes” means to deceive.^[3][11] Colloquial Romanian later used a face praf for crushing someone in an argument or for dazzling them, and slang praf alb for cocaine.^[11][5] In Moldavia colb was the usual word for dust.^[3][12]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – prahul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10][5]
• 1648 – prahul in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[2]
• c. 1660–1670 – prah glossing Slavonic прахъ in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1673 – prav in Dosoftei's verse Psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – both praful and prah in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. dust: very fine, light solid particles from the natural crumbling of the earth's crust or of solid bodies;^[11][5][1] Mobila era plină de praf. “The furniture was covered in dust.”^[11][5][1]
2. A powder: any solid material reduced to very fine particles;^[11] praf de pușcă “gunpowder”, lapte praf “powdered milk”.^[11]
3. A toxic or medicinal substance in powder form;^[11][4] (popular) a dose of such a medicine;^[11][4] (slang) praf alb “cocaine”.^[11][4]
4. (popular) pollen.^[11]

Word family

• prăfărie
• prăfos
• prăfui
• prăfuros

Related words

• colb
• pulbere

Usage notes

Idioms: a face (pe cineva sau ceva) praf “to smash; to squander;^[11] (colloquial) to crush in an argument, to dazzle”;^[11] a (se) face praf și pulbere “to destroy (be destroyed) completely”;^[11] a arunca praf în ochii cuiva “to deceive someone”;^[11] praful de pe tobă “nothing at all”.^[11] The plural prafuri is used for the senses “powder” and “dose”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. praf
3. ^ 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. praf
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. praf
5. ^ 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, 497
6. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. прахъ
7. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 413
8. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 5, 606
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 231
10. ^ a b 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 1:4
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 859
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1030
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. prah
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 1:4