umbros

Forms

umbros m or n (feminine singular umbroasă, masculine plural umbroși, feminine/neuter plural umbroase)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed.^[2][3] Wiktionary, Pușcariu (article 1802), the REW and Papahagi take it as inherited from Latin umbrōsus (“full of shade, shady”), and DEX gives that source beside a Romanian formation.^[1][4][5][2] The DLR, MDA2 and NODEX treat it as formed from Romanian umbră + -os, and Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the noun while comparing the Latin word.^[3][6][7][8] The Latin adjective is formed from umbra (“shadow”) with -ōsus.^[1][9]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian aumbros, which also means “bewitched” and “wasted, thin”.^[8][10][11] Its Romance cognates include Italian ombroso, French ombreux and Occitan ombros.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686), where the passage quoted by DLR uses it figuratively of the “shadowy” scripture of the old law, a foreshadowing not yet clear.^[12][6][3]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, of trees that give shade and of places lying in shade, is common from Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică (1705), with its „copaciul frunzos şi umbros” “leafy and shady tree”, to the folk poetry of „brazi umbroși” “shady firs”.^[3][12] From it came “dark, dim” and figuratively “sad”; of hair or eyelashes it means “thick, bushy”.^[6][13][14] The old church sense “protecting” appears in a Menaion of 1776, and a sense “obscure, little known” in Hasdeu.^[3]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – first recorded, figuratively, in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[6][12][3]
• 1688 – umbros in the Bucharest Bible, for example at Jeremiah 2:20.^[15]
• 1705 – Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică uses it of shady trees.^[3]
• 1776 – “protecting”, of the house of the Lord, in a Menaion.^[3]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda glosses it with Latin umbrosus and German schattig.^[16]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of trees or vegetation, giving shade; of places, lying in the shade, shady.^[2][1]
2. Dark, dim.^[2][13]
3. (figurative) Of hair or eyelashes, bushy, thick.^[6][14]
4. (figurative) Sad, gloomy.^[6]

Related words

• umbră
• umbri
• umbratic
• Aromanian aumbros
• Latin umbrōsus

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1169
3. ^ 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. umbros
4. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 168
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9050
6. ^ 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, 1368
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. umbros
8. ^ a b 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. umbră
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 178
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 46
12. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. umbros
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 573
14. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. umbros
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ier 2:20
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. 732