vas

Forms

vas n (plural vase)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vāsum (“vessel”), the popular form of vās.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The form in ⟨-um⟩ is pre-Classical and is found in the Mulomedicina Chironis;^[5][1] Classical Latin used it only in the plural.^[5][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian vas, Megleno-Romanian vas and Istro-Romanian vos.^[2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian vaso, Spanish vaso, Portuguese vaso, Occitan vas and Catalan vas.^[5][2][8] MDA2 and the DLR compare French vaisseau and the Italian word for the senses “ship” and “vessel of the body”.^[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where vas de lut “a clay pot” is the image of what can be smashed (Psalm 2:9).^[4][9][10] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 3:7).^[11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant any container, of clay, metal or wood.^[9][11] Ciorănescu notes that the transferred sense “organ, receptacle” also goes back to the 16th century: Coresi speaks of “the vessels of the voice”.^[2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has vase de aur și de argint “vessels of gold and silver” among the gifts brought to Solomon.^[11] In the plural the word became the general name for dishes and pots, vase de bucătărie.^[4][3] Tiktin records a wine cask as another sense, and Neculce's chronicle has vas for a ship: Turkish vessels sinking under Russian cannon fire.^[11] Church language used vas ales “chosen vessel” for a person filled with divine grace.^[4] In anatomy and botany it names the tubes that carry blood, lymph or sap.^[3][12]

Timeline

• early 16th century – vas in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[4][10]
• 16th century – vas in the Codicele Voronețean.^[11]
• 1570 – vas in Coresi's psalter.^[13]
• 1649 – vas in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – vase de aur și de argint in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A vessel or container of glass, metal, wood or clay for keeping or carrying liquids or solids, or used as an ornament: un vas de lut.^[3][1]
2. In the plural, the dishes and pots used at table or for cooking.^[3][4]
3. A ship or boat for carrying passengers or goods.^[3][1]
4. A tube that carries blood or lymph in the body, and the vessel that carries sap in a plant: vase de sânge.^[3]

Word family

• vasel
• văsar
• văsărie
• văsări

Related words

• vază
• Aromanian vas
• Latin vās

Usage notes

Vase comunicante are communicating vessels, and vas de noapte is a chamber pot.^[3][4] An old plural vasuri was used for ships.^[11][4] A rare homograph vas “pedestal, base”, plural vasuri, is a loan from Modern Greek βάσις (vásis, “base”) recorded in Cantemir in 1705.^[15][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. vas
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1184
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1417
5. ^ a b c d Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 175
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 323
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 384
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9161
9. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vas
10. ^ 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 2:9
11. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vas
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1392
13. ^ 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 30:16
14. ^ 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. vas
15. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vas 2
16. ^ Gáldi, Ladislas (1939), Les mots d'origine néo-grecque en roumain à l'époque des Phanariotes, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Egyetemi Nyomda, p. 264