râu

Forms

râu n (plural râuri)^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word is written рыу.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *rius (“river”), the spoken form of Latin rīvus (“brook, small stream”).^[2][3][1] MDA2, DLR and DEX give the etymon as the classical form.^[4][5][6] Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu's EWRS (no. 1469) and the REW for this etymology.^[2] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃rih₂wós, from the root *h₃reyh₂- (“to flow, set in motion”);^[1] de Vaan reconstructs the same Proto-Indo-European adjective with the sense “whirling”.^[7]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian arãu and Megleno-Romanian rou.^[2][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian rio, Sardinian riu, Occitan riu, Catalan riu, Spanish río and Portuguese rio.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1377, citing Drăganu's collection of early names.^[9] In Romanian texts it appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the sense “river”: „Riul lui Dumnedzău împlu-se de apă” “the river of God is full of water” (Psalm 64:10).^[5][4]

Semantic evolution

The main sense is a large flowing water formed by several streams.^[6][4] Old texts also used it for a spring and for a torrent of water, senses now obsolete.^[4] From the image of flowing water came “a stream of liquid” and, figuratively, a long column of people; the adverbial râuri-râuri “in streams, in great numbers” is used by Eminescu of peoples set in motion.^[6][9] Ion Neculce wrote that blood flowed in the streets “like rivers”.^[9]

In the plural the word names the wavy lines of embroidery on the sleeves and front of the peasant blouse; in Oltenia this sense has the form răuri.^[6][9][4] In parts of Transylvania Râu is the local name of the Arieș river.^[10] Ciorănescu explains the derivative înrâuri “to influence” as a loan translation of French influer, compare German Einfluss.^[2]

Timeline

• 1377 – the first record, cited by Tiktin from Drăganu.^[9]
• early 16th century – riul “the river” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 64:10).^[4][5]
• 1570 – rîul in Coresi's Psalter: “by the river of Babylon” (Psalm 136:1).^[11][9]
• 1660 – rîul glosses Slavonic rěka “river” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – râu in the Bucharest Bible: a river went out of Eden (Genesis 2:10).^[9][13]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin rivus and notes it as a local name of the Arieș.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A river: a permanent flowing water formed by several streams, which runs into a larger river, a lake or the sea.^[6][4][1]
2. A large flow of liquid; a torrent: un râu de lacrimi “a river of tears”.^[6][14]
3. (figurative) A long line of people moving along;^[6][9] râuri-râuri “in great numbers”.^[6][9]
4. (in the plural) Wavy lines of embroidery on the sleeves and front of the traditional blouse.^[6][4]
5. (obsolete) A spring; a torrent.^[4]

Word family

• înrâuri

Related words

• Aromanian arãu
• Latin rīvus

Usage notes

The regional singular răură was formed from the plural râuri.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. rîu
3. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 660
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rîu
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 923
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 111
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. râu
10. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 591
11. ^ 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 136:1
12. ^ 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. rîul
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 2:10
14. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 762