turturea

Forms

turturea f (plural turturele)^[1] The variant turturică (plural also turturele) is common in the standard language.^[2][3][1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin turturella (“little turtle dove”), a diminutive of Latin turtur (“turtle dove”), according to Tiktin, the DLR, MDA2 and NODEX.^[4][5][6][7] The REW and Wiktionary also name the Classical Latin diminutive turtūrilla, which Seneca uses of an effeminate man.^[8][1][9] The same diminutive gave Italian tortorella and French tourterelle.^[4][10]

Ciorănescu finds it more probable that the word was formed within Romanian: like turturică, it would be a diminutive of the rare turtură, which would continue the Latin word directly, as Italian tortola, Spanish tórtola and Albanian turtull do; this was Lacea's view.^[11][1] Tiktin held the opposite: turtură is a back-formation from turturea.^[4] Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[1] The DLR explains turturică as the same word with a change of suffix.^[5]

South of the Danube the simple form prevails: Aromanian turturã and Megleno-Romanian túrtură, beside the Aromanian diminutive turtureauã.^[11][12][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 83:4: „Paserea află-și casă și turtureaua cuibu” “the sparrow finds itself a house and the turtle dove a nest”.^[6][5][4]

Semantic evolution

The sense “turtle dove” has stayed central since the first psalters.^[5][4] In the old Bible translations the bird is an offering: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „berbece tretin și turturea și porumbei” “a three-year-old ram and a turtle dove and pigeons” (Genesis 15:9).^[4][13] Varlaam's homilies compare a pure soul to the bird: „ca o turturea curată” “like a pure turtle dove”.^[4] Scriban describes it as the symbol of faithfulness in love, and the form turturică serves as a term of endearment.^[14][3]

Regionally the name passed to the Eurasian collared dove and, in Bucovina, to plants of the genus Carlina and to a saxifrage.^[6][15][4] Capidan, followed by Ciorănescu, derives the Bulgarian turturica from the Romanian word.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – turtureaua in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[6][5]
• 1688 – turturea among the sacrificial animals in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 15:9).^[4][13]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses turturea with Latin turtur and German Turteltaube.^[16]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives French tourterelle for it.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. turtle dove: a migratory bird smaller than the pigeon, reddish-brown on the back, with black patches edged with white on the sides of the neck (Streptopelia turtur).^[2][6][1]
2. (regional) the Eurasian collared dove (Streptopelia decaocto), also called turturea-gugușea.^[6]
3. (regional, botany) the stemless carline thistle (Carlina acaulis) and the common carline thistle (Carlina vulgaris).^[6][15]
4. (figurative) a term of endearment, mostly in the form turturică.^[3]

Word family

• turturel
• turturoi

Related words

• turtură
• Aromanian turturã
• Latin turtur

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1156
3. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 527
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. turturea
5. ^ 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. turturea
6. ^ 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, 1307
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. turturea
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9010
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c 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. turturea
12. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1051
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 15:9
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1359
15. ^ a b Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 319
16. ^ 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. 728
17. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 757