vultur

Forms

vultur m (plural vulturi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin vultur (“vulture”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian vultur and Megleno-Romanian văltur.^[2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Old French voutre, Spanish buitre and Portuguese abutre; Italian avvoltore and French vautour go back to a variant Vulgar Latin *vultor.^[2][8]

The standard stress is on the first syllable, but a variant ⟨vultúr⟩ is stressed on the second.^[1][9] Pușcariu and the REW explained the two stresses by a double source, the Latin noun itself and vulturius;^[2] Ciorănescu does not find this convincing.^[2] Tiktin derives all the forms from the first Latin word and argues against the second because the old texts never have an ending ⟨-riu⟩, though he allows that the forms stressed on ⟨-túr⟩ may show a crossing.^[4] The Latin word probably comes from vellō (“to pluck, tear”).^[10][1]

Romanian lent the word to Bulgarian dialects as вунтур (vúntur), a large eagle.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the genitive vulturului in Psalm 102:5 of the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, from the early 16th century; the later psalters of the 16th century have the same verse.^[12][4][3] The sense was “eagle”: the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 glosses the word with the Slavonic names of the eagle and the vulture.^[13]

Semantic evolution

Romanian uses the word for the large birds of prey in general, both the vultures and the eagles, and Tiktin and Damé translate it first as “eagle”.^[4][14][9] Scriban notes that it is properly the vulture, larger than the pajură or acvilă, and that naming decorations vultur was a mistranslation of French aigle or German Adler.^[15] From the bird come the figurative sense of a brave, proud man, ochi de vultur “sharp eyes”, the eagle on a standard or a coat of arms, and the name of a northern constellation.^[9][16]

The old and regional forms include vâltur in Moxa and in Oltenia, and hultur in Moldavia.^[15][4] Romanian derived vultan, whose formation Ciorănescu calls unclear, vulturesc, vulturește and the plant name vulturică.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – vulturului in Psalm 102:5 of the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record in MDA2 and Tiktin.^[3][4]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, glossing the eagle and the vulture.^[13]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible: “where the carcass is, there the eagles will gather” (Matthew 24:28).^[4][17]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives Latin vultur, Hungarian sas and German Geyer.^[18]

Meanings

Noun

1. A name for several large birds of prey with a hooked beak and strong talons that feed on live animals and carrion: the vulture and, popularly, the eagle.^[9][1] Vultur-pleșuv is the black vulture, vultur-pescar the osprey.^[9][3]
2. (figurative) A brave, proud man.^[9][3]
3. The standard of the Roman legions, bearing an eagle; an eagle on coats of arms, coins, seals or flags.^[9]
4. (with the article, Vulturul) A northern constellation, south of the Swan, visible in summer.^[9]

Word family

• vultan
• vulturesc
• vulturește
• vulturică

Related words

• acvilă
• pajură
• Aromanian vultur

Usage notes

Ochi de vultur or privire de vultur means a sharp, piercing gaze.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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. vultur
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1521
4. ^ 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. vultur
5. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vultur
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1125
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 322
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9466
9. ^ 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. 1209
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. vultur
11. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 199
12. ^ 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 102:5
13. ^ 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. vultur
14. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 2
15. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1423
16. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 704
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 24:28
18. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 765