sare

Forms

sare f (plural săruri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin sale, the popular form of sāl (“salt”).^{[2][1][3][4][5]} De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *sē̆h₂-l-s (“salt”) for the Latin noun.^[6] The Latin word was masculine; the Romanian one is feminine, as in Spanish, Catalan, Occitan and the dialects of northern Italy.^[3][4] DÉRom dates the change of gender to Proto-Romance: the noun became feminine early over most of the area, the masculine survived in Sardinian, and it later spread back into some languages.^[7]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian sare, Megleno-Romanian sari and Istro-Romanian sare.^[7][8][9] Ciorănescu and Pușcariu print the Istro-Romanian form as sore.^[2][3] The Romance cognates include Sardinian sale, Italian sale, French sel, Occitan sal, Catalan sal, Spanish sal and Portuguese sal.^[2][7] The verb săra “to salt” continues salō (“to salt”) separately.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of Sibiu (1551–1553), in the verse about the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13).^[10][7] MDA2 gives Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581 as its first record.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense, table salt and rock salt, has not changed; old plurals were sări and sărure, and the plural săruri now has a collective or scientific sense.^[5][2] The figurative sense is “wit, charm”: Tiktin quotes a writer for whom life was „prea fără sare” “too saltless”.^[10][11] Chemistry gave the general sense of a compound of an acid and a base, and popular names such as sare amară “Epsom salt”, sare de lămâie “citric acid” and sarea pisicii “antimony”.^[12][11][13]

Salt mining and trade left derivatives such as sărărit, an old tax paid by those living near the salt mines, sărar “salt seller” and sărărie “salt store”.^[2] In Aromanian sare also means “nature, character”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – sare in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book of Sibiu, the first record.^[10][7]
• 1581 – sare in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[5]
• 1770 – the Aromanian sare in Kavalliotis's Protopeiria.^[7]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda lists sare with ocnă de sare “salt mine”.^[14]
• 1862 – sarea pisicii “antimony” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. salt, sodium chloride: a white crystalline substance soluble in water, used to season and preserve food.^[12][5]
2. (figurative) Wit, charm, spice.^[12][11]
3. (chemistry) A compound formed by the reaction of an acid with a base.^[12]
4. In sare amară: magnesium sulphate, a purgative; in sare de lămâie: citric acid.^[12]
5. (in the plural) smelling salts, once used to revive someone who has fainted.^[12]

Word family

• săra
• sărat
• sărătură
• sărărit
• sărar
• sărărie
• sărăriță
• presăra
• nesărat
• săricică

Related words

• salariu
• Aromanian sare
• Latin sāl

Usage notes

Set phrases include sarea pământului “the most valuable part”, a-i sta cuiva ca sarea în ochi “to be unbearable to someone” and a primi cu pâine și sare “to welcome with honour”.^[12] The spelling is also a form of the unrelated verb sări “to jump”.^[15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. sare
3. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 136
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7521
5. ^ 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, 759
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. sāl
7. ^ a b c d e f Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom, p. s.v. sale
8. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 915
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 257
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sare
11. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1155
12. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 976
13. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 649
14. ^ 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. 610
15. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org