ușar

Forms

ușar m (plural ușari)^[1] The variant ușer is the usual form of the Moldavian chroniclers: Ureche has „Ușer mare, purtător de grijă tuturor solilor” “great usher, in charge of all the envoys”.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ușă + -ar, from the word for “door” with the agent suffix.^[3][2][4][5] Wiktionary also allows a Latin source, Vulgar Latin *ustiārius, from Latin ostiārius (“doorkeeper”).^[1] The REW reconstructs that Vulgar Latin form for French huissier “usher”.^[6]

The 19th-century ușier “usher, office attendant” is the same word remodelled after Italian usciere and the French word.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is ușariu, the title of a Moldavian court official, in a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1482.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

The word had two senses.^[2] The doorkeeper appears in the gospels: the shepherd's door is opened by the ușariu, for Slavonic dvernikŭ (John 10:3).^[5][2] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss it with the same Slavonic word.^[7] In Moldavia the ușar was also a court official who received foreign envoys, presented them to the prince and guarded the princely gate, and ușar mare was the chief of these officials.^[4][3][2] The doorkeeper sense survived regionally into the 19th century.^[2]

Timeline

• 1482 – ușariu, a Moldavian court title, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[2][3][5]
• 1587 – the diminutive ușerel.^[5]
• 1587–1591 – „am trimes cu Ivan ușar” “I sent with Ivan the usher” in a document.^[2]
• 1593 – Ușerel, a personal name in Moldavia.^[8]
• 1648 – ușariul “the doorkeeper” in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[2]
• 1649 – ușariu in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1720 – ușerul cel mare “the great usher” in a document.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (obsolete and regional) A doorkeeper, porter.^[3][2][1]
2. (historical, Moldavia) A court official who received foreign envoys, presented them to the prince and guarded the princely gate;^[4][3] ușar mare “great usher”, the chief of these officials.^[4][3]

Related words

• ușă
• ușier

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ușar
3. ^ 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, 1399
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1178
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ușer
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ 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. ușar
8. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. ușar
9. ^ 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. ușariu