trandafir

Forms

trandafir m (plural trandafiri)^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written трандафир.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek τριαντάφυλλο (triantáfyllo, “rose”), which MDA2 and the DLR cite in the older form τριαντάφυλλον (triantáphyllon).^[2][3][4][1] DEX adds that the ending was brought closer to fir “thread” by folk etymology.^[5][6] The Greek word is from Byzantine Greek τριαντάφυλλον (triantáphyllon), a compound of τριάντα (triánta, “thirty”) and φύλλον (phýllon, “leaf”), first used in the phrase “thirty-leaved rose”.^[7][8]

The word has counterparts south of the Danube, Aromanian trandafilã and Megleno-Romanian trindáfil, both from Greek as well.^[2][9][10] The same Greek word spread through the Balkans: compare Albanian trëndafil, Bulgarian трендафил (trendafil) and Ukrainian троянда (trojanda).^[2][1][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1441, in the DRHB documents, the collection in which he also finds the personal name Treandafil.^[12] The surname Trandafir is recorded in Moldavia in 1610.^[13] In Romanian texts the word is first found in the Slavonic–Romanian glossaries of the 17th century, where Mardarie (1649) uses it to render Slavonic words for the rose and the dog rose.^[14][3]

Semantic evolution

The word named both the shrub and its flower from the start.^[4][12] It pushed out the older word rujă: Negruzzi wrote that the rose was called rujă among Romanians until the Greeks came and named it trandafir.^[4] The 1688 Bible uses it in the Wisdom of Solomon and in Sirach, and a remedy of about 1750 prescribes rose flowers with peony root.^[15][16][4] Folk botany attached it to many species: the dog rose (trandafir sălbatic, also called măceș), the rose used for jam, the monthly rose (trandafir de lună), and the alpine rose (trandafir de munte).^[12][3][5]

In Moldavia the word also names a horseshoe-shaped sausage of coarsely chopped pork with garlic and pepper.^[17][12][5] Ciorănescu finds this sense unclear, Scriban explains it by the spices, and Șăineanu by the reddish colour of the sausage.^[2][8][17] Scriban also records figurative uses: the natural flush of the cheeks, and the years of one's youth, as in a avea douăzeci de trandafiri “to be twenty years old”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1441 – first record, in the DRHB documents.^[12]
• 1610 – Trandafir as a Moldavian surname.^[13]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• c. 1660–1670 – the Lexicon of Stoica (Lex.St.), MDA2's first record.^[3][14]
• 1688 – trandafiri in the Bucharest Bible (Esther 1:7).^[18]
• c. 1750 – rose flowers in a medical recipe.^[4]
• 1825 – trandafiru, with apă de trandafiru “rose water”, in the Lexicon of Buda.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. A rose: any of the cultivated shrubs or perennials of the genus Rosa, with thorny shoots and large fragrant flowers of many colours, used in perfumery, and the flower itself.^[5][3] Trandafir sălbatic is the dog rose.^[5]
2. In compounds, other plants and animals: trandafir-de-munte “rhododendron” and trandafir-de-mare “sea anemone”.^[5]
3. Lemn de trandafir: rosewood, the wood of South American trees used for luxury furniture.^[5]
4. A sausage of coarsely chopped pork, seasoned with plenty of pepper and garlic.^[5][20]

Word family

• trandafiriu

Related words

• rujă
• Aromanian trandafilã
• Modern Greek τριαντάφυλλο (triantáfyllo)

Usage notes

Regional forms include trandafil and trăndafil.^[3][12] Besides the usual plural trandafiri, Tiktin records a feminine plural trandafiruri for the flowers.^[12] The proverb nu e trandafir fără spini means “there is no rose without thorns”.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. trandafir
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1253
4. ^ 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. trandafir
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1136
6. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1336
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 300
11. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 707
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. trandafir
13. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. trandafir
14. ^ a b c 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. trandafir
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Wisdom 2:8
16. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sirach 39:17
17. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 662
18. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Esther 1:7
19. ^ 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. 716
20. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional