urs

Forms

urs m (plural urși, feminine equivalent ursă)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ursus (“bear”).^{[2][3][1][4][5]} The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ŕ̥tḱos (“bear”), via Proto-Italic.^[1][6] De Vaan notes that the Latin cluster ⟨rs⟩ continues the PIE one, but that the initial ⟨u⟩ is unexpected and may be a taboo distortion.^[6] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian ursu, Megleno-Romanian urs and Istro-Romanian urs.^[2][7][8] The Romance cognates include Italian orso, Occitan ors, French ours, Catalan ós and Spanish oso.^[2][5]

The Latin feminine ursa survives south of the Danube as ursă, while Daco-Romanian uses a derivative instead.^[4] The Daco-Romanian noun of that form, meaning a she-bear, is a later loan from French.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hațegan records Urs as a place name in Banat from 1256.^[9] Tiktin dates the first record of the word to about 1318.^[10] In Romanian texts it first appears in Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581, which compares bribe-takers and cheats in the cities to the bears and lions of the forest.^[3][11]

Semantic evolution

Besides the animal, the word is used for a heavy, sullen, unsociable person.^[12][2][10] Regional senses name things by likeness: in Moldavia a ball of maize porridge with cheese inside, and elsewhere a beam of a wooden bridge or a post of the porch.^[12][2] It also names a ritual dance at wakes and a popular feast, Ziua ursului on 2 February, when the bear is believed to leave its den.^[10][3][2]

Common idioms are a vinde pielea ursului din pădure “to sell the bear's skin before catching it” and a trage nădejde ca ursul de coadă “to hope in vain”.^[12][10] Ciorănescu notes, after Meyer, that Modern Greek οὔρσα (oúrsa) “loose woman” comes from Romanian.^[2]

Timeline

• 1256 – Urs, a place name in Banat.^[9]
• c. 1318 – a record that Tiktin gives as the first of the word.^[10]
• 1581 – urșii in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3][11]
• 1688 – ursul, urși and other forms in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. The brown bear, a large omnivorous mammal with a pointed snout and a short tail (Ursus arctos); urs alb or urs polar is the polar bear.^[12][1]
2. (figurative) A heavy, surly, unsociable person.^[12]
3. (regional) A ball of polenta with cheese in the middle.^[12][2]
4. (regional) Each of the long beams of a wooden bridge; a post supporting the sill of a porch.^[12]

Word family

• ursoaică
• ursei
• ursuleț
• ursar
• ursărește
• ursărime
• ursăriță
• ursesc
• ursiu
• ursoi
• ursă

Related words

• Aromanian ursu
• Latin ursus

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. urs
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1393
4. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 172
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9089
6. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1093
8. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 162
9. ^ a b Hațegan, Ioan (2013), Dicționar istoric al așezărilor din Banat, sec. XI–XX. Atestări documentare și cartografice, Timișoara
10. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. urs
11. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urs
12. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1177
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Amos 5:19