ud

Forms

ud m or n (feminine singular udă, masculine plural uzi, feminine/neuter plural ude)^[1] As a noun “urine” it is neuter, with the plural uduri: „Să mănânce balega lor și să bea udul lor” “to eat their dung and drink their urine” (Bucharest Bible, 1688).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ūdus (“wet, moist”).^{[4][5][6][1][7]} The Latin adjective is a contraction of ūvidus (“wet”).^[8][1][9]

It survives in Megleno- and Istro-Romanian as ud and ud, and Ciorănescu gives the same form for Aromanian.^[4][10][11] Elsewhere in Romance only Dalmatian yoit continues it.^[7][4] Cihac noted that the Western Romance languages lack the word.^[12]

The verb uda “to wet” is not derived from the adjective: it continues Latin ūdō (“to wet”).^[4][13] For the noun meaning “urine”, Pușcariu considered a verbal noun of the verb or the substantivised Latin neuter, but thought it more likely that a Hungarian word for urine had been drawn to the adjective by folk etymology;^[6][12] Cihac had already compared the Hungarian word.^[6][12] The dictionaries derive the noun from the Latin adjective as well.^[5][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686).^[5][2] Tiktin quotes from that work the phrase mădulariul udului “the member of urine”, the urethra, so the noun use is as old as the record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The adjective has kept its meaning “wet”, and was extended to eyes full of tears, to sweaty skin and to damp air.^[5][3] Nicolae Costin wrote of seeds wet with rain, „sămințele cele ude de ploaie”.^[14] A folk tale has God and Saint Peter wet to the skin, „uzi până la piele”.^[2]

As a noun the word came to mean urine, with old phrases such as bășica udului “the bladder”, piatra udului “a bladder stone” and vas de ud “chamber pot”, and the popular a ieși cu udul “to pass water”.^[5][2] The proverb Udul de ploaie nu se teme “the wet man does not fear the rain” is said of someone with nothing to lose.^[2]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints, the first record, with the noun “urine”.^[5][2]
• 1688 – udul “urine” in the Bucharest Bible (4 Kings 18:27).^[15][2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. wet: soaked with water or another liquid; very damp: Hainele erau ude de ploaie.^[3][5][1]
2. Of eyes, full of tears.^[3][5]
3. Covered in sweat.^[3][5]
4. Of small children, having wet themselves.^[3]
5. Of the air or weather, clammy, damp.^[5]

Noun

1. (popular) urine: bășica udului “the bladder”.^[3][5][1]

Word family

• udătură
• udeală

Related words

• uda
• Latin ūdus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ud
3. ^ 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. 1166
4. ^ 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. ud
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1357
6. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 167
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9030
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. ūdus
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 161
11. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula, p. s.v. ud
12. ^ a b c Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 295
13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9029
14. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ud
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 4 Kgs 18:27