treiera

Forms

treiera (third-person singular present treieră, past participle treierat, third-person subjunctive treiere), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin tribulō (“to press; to thresh”), the verb of the threshing sledge, trībulum.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Latin verb meant “to press, squeeze” in Cato and “to oppress, afflict” in Church Latin.^[6][7] The REW notes that across Romance the word names threshing with the threshing board, or by driving animals over the spread-out grain, and only in Tuscany threshing with the flail.^[5] Tiktin adds that a form *trebulō seems to have existed beside it, to which Italian trebbiare and the Old Campidanese trebulare point.^[8][5]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian triyir and Megleno-Romanian trăir.^[2][9][1] Its Romance cognates include Sardinian triulare, Spanish trillar, Portuguese trilhar and Occitan treblar.^[2][5] Graur puts it in the family of Latin terō (“to rub”), beside cutreiera from contribulō and the learned tribulație.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Apostol of 1563, with the old form trieră: „Să neștine trieră, spre a lui nădeajde să se hrănească” “if someone threshes, in the hope of feeding himself”.^[11][3][8] The sense is the farm work of separating grain from the straw.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The core sense has stayed the same: separating the grain or seeds from the rest of the plant, once by beating with the flail or by driving horses or oxen over the sheaves, today with threshing machines and combines.^[11][3] In parts of Transylvania a îmblăti and a treiera were used as synonyms.^[11] From the threshing animals going round the floor came a figurative sense, “to wander from place to place”, which DEX labels rare and which is close to cutreiera.^[4][3] Macedonski uses it of roaming the desert and the universe.^[12] In Muntenia it also means “to trample, crush”.^[3]

The forms vary by region: triera in Moldavia, Transylvania and Banat, with trâiera in Banat; a present treierez is rare beside treier.^[8][2] Romanian formed treierat “threshing”, treierător “thresher”, treierătoare “threshing machine” and treieriș.^[2]

Timeline

• 1563 – trieră in Coresi's Apostol, the first record.^[11][3][8]
• 1688 – „Să nu legi gura boului care treieră” “do not muzzle the ox that threshes” in the Bucharest Bible (Deuteronomy 25:4).^[8]
• 1780 – „Și trierară și făcură trii oboroace de grâu” “and they threshed and made three measures of wheat”, in a document.^[11]
• 1801 – listed in Klein's dictionary.^[11]
• late 19th century – Creangă and Odobescu use it of threshing with horses.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To thresh: to separate the grain or seeds from the rest of a plant, by beating, by animals treading it, or with machines, as in mașină de treierat “threshing machine”.^[4][3][1]
2. (figurative, rare) To roam, to travel all over a place.^[4][3]
3. (regional, Muntenia) To trample, to crush underfoot.^[3]

Word family

• treier
• treierat
• treierător
• treieriș
• treierătură
• treierătoare

Related words

• cutreiera
• tribulație
• Aromanian triyir
• Latin tribulō

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. treiera
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1271
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1143
5. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8885
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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. treiera
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 298
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 101
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. treiera
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 490