roibă

Forms

roibă f (plural roibe)^[1] Regional forms include robia, robghia, rodea, roibie and roghie.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rubia (“madder”), derived from ruber (“red”).^[1][4][5] DEX and MDA2 give the Latin form as robia.^[6][3] Tiktin and Scriban think the sound of the word was partly shaped by roib.^[2][5] Its Romance cognates include Italian robbia, Spanish rubia and Portuguese ruiva.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825, which glosses the plant with Rubia tinctorum and gives its Hungarian and German names.^[3][2][7]

Semantic evolution

The plant was grown for the red dye in its roots, used for textile fibres and, Tiktin notes, for rouge.^[6][2][5] Regionally the name passed to other plants: an early pea, bastard balm and creeping cinquefoil.^[3]

Timeline

• 1825 – roibă “madder” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[3][2]
• 1939 – Scriban records the variant robie in Transylvania and the synonyms garanță, pațachină and rumenele.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. madder (Rubia tinctorum), a plant with lance-shaped leaves and yellowish-white flowers whose root contains a red dye; the same as garanță.^[6][1]
2. (regional) Other plants: an early pea; bastard balm (Melittis melissophyllum); creeping cinquefoil.^[3]

Related words

• roib
• Latin ruber

Usage notes

MDA2 has a second roibă, a regional form of the feminine of roib “chestnut”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. roibă
3. ^ 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, 721
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7409
5. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1134
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 960
7. ^ 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. 592