uriaș

Forms

uriaș m (plural uriași)^[1] The usual Moldavian and regional form is urieș, with the plural urieși; old and regional variants are oriaș, oroiaș and hurieș.^[2][3][4] The old texts often write uriiaș: „Acolo am văzut uriiașii și eram înaintea lor ca lăcustele” “there we saw the giants, and we were as grasshoppers before them” (Bible of 1688).^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian óriás (“giant”).^{[5][4][2][3][6][1]} Tamás places it among the Hungarian loans recorded since the oldest texts.^[6] Ciorănescu follows Cihac and Tiktin.^[5]

The Hungarian word is itself of unknown or disputed origin: the TESz finds its explanation from orr (“nose”) unconvincing and also reviews attempts to link it with avar and úr (“lord”), and the ÚESz names among other views a Russian loan from the name of the Varangians.^[7][8] It is recorded in Hungary as a place name in 1009 and as a gloss for Latin gigas about 1395.^[8][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 18:6: „Bucură-se ca uriașul alerga cale” “he rejoices as a giant to run his course”.^[4][6] Tiktin cites the same verse from the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2][9] The sense is “giant”, a being of superhuman size and strength.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The noun first named the giants of the Bible, of folk mythology and of Greek and Latin myth; the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582) has „uriași sau putearnici” “giants or mighty men”.^[3][6] From these it passed to a very tall and strong person and, figuratively, to a person of outstanding merit, un uriaș al culturii.^[3][10] An old, rare sense was “a powerful man, a ruler”, as in Dosoftei's psalter.^[3]

The adjective “huge, enormous” is now standard (stânci uriașe in Vlahuță, umbra lui cea uriașă in Eminescu), though Scriban condemned the adjectival use.^[2][6][11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – uriașul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[4][6]
• c. 1573–1578 – uriașul in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 18:6).^[9][2]
• 1581–1582 – uriași in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3][6]
• 1688 – uriașii and uriiașii in the Bucharest Bible.^[12][2]
• 1825 – uriaș “gigas” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A giant of folk tales and myth, a being of human shape and huge size.^[10][1]
2. A very tall and sturdy person.^[10][4]
3. (figurative) A person of exceptional merit in a field; a titan.^[10]

Adjective

1. huge, enormous, gigantic: un val uriaș.^[10][1]

Word family

• urieșesc
• urieșiță

Related words

• Hungarian óriás

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. uriaș
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. uriaș
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1389
5. ^ 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. uriaș
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 830
7. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 1091
8. ^ a b Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 18:6
10. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 1175
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1382
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 6:4