vampir

Forms

vampir m (plural vampiri, feminine equivalent vampiră)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French vampire and German Vampir, as Tiktin, DEX, DLR, MDA2 and MDN give it.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The French word was borrowed from German in 1738.^[7] The German word was taken in 1725 from Serbo-Croatian vampir, through a report from Vienna about events in Belgrade.^[8][9] Kluge thinks the Serbian form was originally Macedonian or Bulgarian, compare Bulgarian вампир (vampir).^[8][10] It goes back to Proto-Slavic *ǫpyrь, whose origin is uncertain: a borrowing from Turkic or a Slavic formation have been proposed.^[8][1] Scriban calls it a Serbian word taken from the Turks.^[11]

Wiktionary notes that, despite the link with Romania made abroad, the word is not native to Romanian; the folk figure is the strigoi.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1805, in Gheorghe Șincai, glossing it both as a kind of bat and as a vampire.^[2] Negulici's vocabulary of neologisms of 1848, MDA2's first record, explains it as strigoi.^[12][5]

Semantic evolution

The figure of folk belief, the dead who leave the grave at night to suck the blood of the living, is the main sense;^[4][13] Negruzzi lists vampires beside ghosts and dragons.^[4][13] A figurative sense, “oppressor, exploiter”, was current in the 19th century: Caragiale writes of a county handed over to the claws of a vampire.^[4] The word also names the blood-sucking bat of the Americas, which Tiktin already glosses, and a murderer who kills for the sight of blood.^[2][4][3] In school slang a strict teacher is a vampir.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1805 – first record, in Gheorghe Șincai.^[2]
• 1848 – vampir, explained as strigoi, in Negulici's vocabulary.^[12][5]
• 1862 – the vampire bat in Protopopescu and Popescu's dictionary.^[4]
• 1886 – in Barcianu's dictionary, with the figurative sense.^[4]
• 1974 – Dracula turned into a vampire, in Magazin istoric.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vampire bat, a large bat of Central and South America that feeds on the blood of birds and mammals.^[3]
2. (folklore) A vampire: a dead person who leaves the grave at night and sucks the blood of the sleeping, a strigoi.^[3][5]
3. (figurative) A cruel oppressor, an exploiter.^[3][4]
4. A murderer who kills for the pleasure of seeing blood flow.^[3]

Word family

• vampiră

Related words

• strigoi
• French vampire
• German Vampir

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. vampir
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1182
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vampir
5. ^ 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, 1411
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. vampir
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 947
9. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 117
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1390
12. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. vampir
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, 617
14. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. vampir