vad

Forms

vad n (plural vaduri)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vadum (“shallow place, ford”).^[2][3][4][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian vado, Spanish vado, Portuguese vao and French gué, and Albanian va.^[2][5][6] According to the REW, the French word and guado show the influence of a Frankish word.^[6] The Latin word goes back through Proto-Italic to Proto-Indo-European *wh₂dʰóm, from the root *weh₂dʰ- (“to go”).^[1]

For the ford Pușcariu gives Aromanian por.^[5] The adjective vădos “fordable” may come straight from Latin vadōsus, as the REW has it.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name: Vad in the Făgăraș country, recorded in 1417.^[7][8] In Romanian texts, Ureche's chronicle names the ford where Prince Stephen drove the Turks across the Siret, Vadul Turcilor “the Turks' Ford”.^[7] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of Mardarie (1649) glosses it.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the ford the word spread to other places where water is crossed or reached: a ferry crossing, a landing-place or port in the old language, a shore, a riverbed, an irrigation channel, and a good site for a water mill.^[2][4][3] The 17th-century lexicons gloss it with Slavonic words for both “ford” and “harbour”.^[9] Figuratively it is a way through or a way out: a-și face vad “to make one's way”, a nu avea vad “to have no escape”, and the proverb nu cerca vadul cu nebunul “don't test the ford with a fool”.^[7][3] In the modern commercial sense it is a shop's site on a busy road, and so its clientele.^[4][2][1]

The word is frequent in place names, from Vadul Izei to the Cluj commune Vad.^[8][1]

Timeline

• 1417 – Vad, a place name in the Făgăraș country.^[7][8]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. a ford: a place in a river where the water is shallow enough to cross from bank to bank.^[4][3][1]
2. a riverbed; an irrigation channel or trough.^[4]
3. (figurative) a way through, a passage; a way of escape.^[4][3]
4. a shore, a bank;^[4][2] (old) a landing-place, a harbour.^[4][2]
5. (figurative) a place near a busy road that brings a shop many customers; a good source of income: Brutăria are un vad bun.^[4][1]

Word family

• vădui
• vădărit
• vădar
• vădos

Related words

• Latin vadum

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. vad
3. ^ 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, 1405
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1180
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 173
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9120
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vad
8. ^ a b c Suciu, Coriolan (1966–1968), Dicționar istoric al localităților din Transilvania, I–II, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 2, 222
9. ^ a b c 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. vad