rugi

Forms

rugi (first-person singular present rugesc, third-person singular present rugește, past participle rugit) 4th conjugation^[1][2] A regional first-conjugation variant rugea occurs in a folk charm: „Nu rugea ca câinele” “do not howl like the dog”.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rūgiō (“to roar, bellow”), a verb used of lions and deer.^{[4][3][2][5][1][6][7]} Its closest relative south of the Danube is Aromanian arujescu “to neigh”, made with the suffix -escu.^[4][1][8] Papahagi derives that Aromanian verb from Slavonic instead.^[9] The Romance cognates include Italian ruggire, Occitan rugir, Spanish rugir, Portuguese rugir and Old French ruir.^[4][7]

DEX and DILF give only a comparison with the Latin verb and French rugir, and label the word bookish or rare, as if it were a learned word.^[10][11] The Latin verb is late in its record, and its vowel length is uncertain; de Vaan compares Ancient Greek ἐρεύγομαι (ereúgomai, “to roar”) and ὠρυγή (ōrugḗ, “roaring”) and suggests that mūgiō (“to low”) may have influenced it.^[12] Wiktionary traces it, with a perhaps, to Proto-Indo-European *h₁rewg- (“to roar”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților (1682–1686) has the first record: two lions came and fell at a saint's feet „rugind” “roaring”, bowing to him;^[2][5][3] Tiktin dates the record 1683.^[2][5][3]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of animals: roaring, lowing and howling.^[3][2] Dosoftei used it in the 17th century, and DER calls it rare today.^[4] The 19th-century dictionaries still list it, and a regional variant lives on in folk charms.^[3] Modern dictionaries treat it as a bookish word meaning “to roar like a lion”.^[10][11]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – rugind “roaring”, of two lions, in Dosoftei's Viața și petrecerea sfinților.^[2][5][3]
• 1822 – listed in Bobb's Romanian–Latin–Hungarian dictionary.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (archaic, rare; of animals) To roar, bellow or howl.^[3][2][5][1]
2. (literary) To roar like a lion.^[10][11]

Word family

• ruget

Related words

• Aromanian arujescu

Usage notes

The form rugi is also the plural of rug “bramble” and of rugă “prayer”: the 1688 Bible and the old texts have it often in that sense.^[13][14] The noun ruget “roar” is formed on this verb.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 734
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rugi
4. ^ a b c d 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. rugi
5. ^ 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. rugi
6. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 1481
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7428
8. ^ 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, p. 1, 41
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 155
10. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 966
11. ^ a b c Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. s.v. rugi
12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Romans 15:30
14. ^ Gaster, M. (1891), Chrestomatie română: texte tipărite și manuscrise (sec. XVI–XIX), dialectale și populare, cu o introducere, gramatică și un glosar româno-francez, vol. II, Leipzig: Brockhaus / București: Socec, p. s.v. rugi
15. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ruget