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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word vier

vier1 vintager, vineyard keeper

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1561 Coresi's Tetraevanghel
Ultimate origin
Romanian vie,-ar

Pronunciation

Forms

vier m (plural vieri)[1] A document of 1626 has the older form viiari: „pre alți tîrgoveți și pre alți viiari” “other townsmen and other vineyard keepers”.[2]

Etymology

The word for the vintager is formed from Romanian vie + -ar.[2][3][4] Pușcariu derived it instead from Latin vīneārius, and compared Italian vignaio, Spanish viñero and Portuguese vinheiro.[5] Tiktin, Scriban and Wiktionary give both explanations.[6][7][1] Wiktionary compares Aromanian yier.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, in Luke 13:7.[6] MDA2 dates it from a document of 1626.[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the keeper or watchman of a vineyard, then a vine worker or the owner of a vineyard, and rarely a specialist in growing vines and making wine.[3][2] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has the old form in Jeremiah 52:13: „viiari și plugari” “vinedressers and husbandmen”.[6] Under the form viar it also names a beetle that lays its eggs in vine leaves.[3][6]

Timeline

  • 1561 – Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record.[6]
  • 1626 – viiari in a document.[3][2]
  • 1649 – viiariu in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[8]
  • 1688 – viiari in the Bucharest Bible.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A vineyard keeper or watchman.[3][4]
  2. (rare) A vintager, vine grower; podgorean, viticultor.[4][1]
  3. (as viar) A beetle whose larvae damage vines (Rhynchites betuleti).[3][6]

vier2 boar

Confidence
Established
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1573–1578 Psaltirea Scheiană
Inherited from
Latin verres
Ultimate origin
Latin verrēs
Etymology tree of vier2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin verrēs
Romanian vier

Pronunciation

Forms

vier m (plural vieri)[1]

Etymology

The word for the boar is inherited from Latin verrēs (“uncastrated male pig”).[9][3][4][10][11][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian verro, Occitan verre, Catalan verre and Old French ver.[9][11] The Latin noun goes back to Proto-Indo-European *wérsēn (“male animal”).[1][12]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană, of c. 1573–1578.[3] Coresi's psalter of 1589 has vierul in Psalm 79:14.[13]

Semantic evolution

The Bucharest Bible renders the same verse „Strică pre ea scroafă den dumbravă și vier sălbatec pre ea o păscu” “the sow out of the wood ravaged it, and the wild boar fed on it”.[6][14] The word names both the uncastrated male pig kept for breeding and the male wild boar, often with sălbatic or de pădure.[3][2] In the popular astronomy of the peasants, vierii is a group of stars beside Aldebaran.[15][3]

Timeline

  • c. 1573-1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.[3]
  • 1589 – vierul in Coresi's psalter.[13]
  • c. 1660-1670 – vierul glosses a Slavonic word for boar in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[16]
  • 1673 – Dosoftei's metrical psalter.[6]
  • 1688 – vier sălbatec in the Bucharest Bible.[14]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A boar, an uncastrated male pig kept for breeding.[4][3][1]
  2. A male wild boar; mistreț.[4][1]
  3. (popular, in the plural) A group of stars beside Aldebaran.[15][3]

Usage notes

The two words differ in pronunciation: vier “vintager” has two syllables, /viˈer/, and vier “boar” one, /vjer/.[1][3] A third, old and regional vier, usually vierul apei, means a whirlpool;[3][2] MDA2 records it from Tîmpeanul's geography of 1840, of unknown origin, and compares vir.[3][2]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vier
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1475
  4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1197
  5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 177
  6. ^ 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. vier
  7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1405
  8. ^ 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. viiariu
  9. ^ a b 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. vier
  10. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 176
  11. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9239
  12. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. verres
  13. ^ 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 79:14
  14. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 79:14
  15. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 657
  16. ^ 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. vierul

Related etymologies

  • bun · also from Latin
  • unde · also from Latin
  • veni · also from Latin
  • noi · also from Latin
  • bine · also from Latin
  • un · also from Latin
  • și · also from Latin
  • sta · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Vier.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/vier. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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