varză

Forms

varză f (plural verze)^[1] Old texts have veardză, plural veardze: „Ca iarba curundu usucă-se, ca veardzele de zlac curundu cadu” “like the grass they soon wither, like the green herbs they soon fall” (Psaltirea Scheiană).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *virdia, a contracted form of Latin viridia (“green plants”), the neuter plural of viridis (“green”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} The word first meant “greenery, herbs”, and the modern language narrowed it to one vegetable, the cabbage.^[7][3]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian veardzã, Megleno-Romanian vęrdză and Istro-Romanian vęrzę.^[3][8][9] Romance has Italian verza, Venetian verza, Friulian verze, Spanish berza and Portuguese verça.^[5][6][1] The REW places the word's starting point in northern Italy, from which it reached Spanish and Portuguese.^[6] Ciorănescu says that Serbo-Croatian vrza seems to come from Romanian.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in the plural and in the old sense “green plants, herbs”.^[4][2] Tiktin has a record of 1526 in the Wallachian charters.^[5] The Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582) has „Rodi pămîntul iarbă și veardze și pomi roditori” “the earth brought forth grass and herbs and fruit trees” (Genesis 1:12).^[2][5]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the plural meant greenery, plants and herbs.^[4][2] Coresi's Gospel says that the mustard seed grows „mai mare de toate veardzele” “greater than all herbs” (Matthew 13:32).^[2][5] Regional speech kept older senses: “vegetables” in Maramureș, weeds used as fodder in south-western Transylvania, and in Bucovina and Moldavia a dish of chopped orache, amaranth and beet leaves dressed with egg or sour cream.^[4][2]

The modern sense is the cabbage, Brassica oleracea.^[10][5] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century use varză to translate Slavonic words for cabbage.^[11][12] In Moldavia and Transylvania the usual word for the vegetable is curechi.^[5][13] Familiar expressions use it for a mess: a face o varză “to make a mess of things”, and a se face varză “to fall to pieces”, said of books and notebooks.^[10] Slang extended it to a worn-out car and to someone exhausted.^[14]

Derivatives include vărzare, a Moldavian pie filled with cabbage and onion, with Aromanian virdzare, which Pascu takes from a Latin *virdiaria.^[3][15] The Oltenian and Transylvanian verb vărzui means “to tear up, to destroy” and “to swarm”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the plural “greenery” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][2]
• 1526 – a record in the Wallachian charters.^[5]
• c. 1573–1578 – veardzele in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1581–1582 – veardze “herbs” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2][5]
• c. 1660 – varză glossing Slavonic words for cabbage in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1661 – the Moldavian personal name Vărdzar.^[16]
• 1758 – varză murată “pickled cabbage” in a chronicle.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. cabbage, a vegetable with large thick leaves wrapped into a compact head (Brassica oleracea), also a dish made from it.^[10][4][1]
2. (obsolete, in the plural) Greenery, plants, herbs.^[4][2]
3. (regional, in the plural) A dish of chopped orache, amaranth and beet leaves.^[4][2]
4. (slang) A mess, a muddle.^[14]

Word family

• vărzare
• vărzui
• verzișoară

Related words

• verde

Usage notes

Kinds of cabbage: varză roșie “red cabbage”, varză creață “savoy cabbage” and varză de Bruxelles “Brussels sprouts”.^[10] A împăca și capra și varza, “to keep both the goat and the cabbage happy”, is to satisfy two sides with opposite interests.^[17]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. varză
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. varză
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1416
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. varză
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9367
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 689
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 379
10. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1184
11. ^ a b 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. varză
12. ^ a b Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 310
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1392
14. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. varză
15. ^ 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, 183
16. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. varză
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. varză