zori

Forms

zori m pl (plural only)^[1] Old and regional forms include ziori, zurori, zoare and zuori.^[2][3] Dosoftei has zoare: „Încă zoare nu răvarsă” “dawn is not breaking yet”.^[3] Marcovici writes ziori: „Peste puține ceasuri îți vor zâmbi ziorile” “in a few hours the dawn will smile on you”.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic зорꙗ (zorja, “dawn”), from Proto-Slavic *zořa.^[4][2][5][1] DEX takes it from the genitive plural зорь (zorĭ), and Graur explains why: the Romanian ending and stress do not fit the Bulgarian plural, which is stressed on the ending, but they fit the Slavonic genitive plural, common in phrases such as до зорь (do zorĭ, “until dawn”) and прѣжде зорь (prěžde zorĭ, “before dawn”).^[4][6] Both phrases are in the Old Church Slavonic texts.^[7] Graur thinks Romanian took the Slavonic form as an indeclinable word and only later gave it articled forms, which is why the regions still disagree on its gender.^[6]

Ciorănescu and Scriban also compare Bulgarian зора (zorá, “dawn”) and the Bulgarian adverbial phrases for “at dawn”.^[5][8][9] The word exists south of the Danube: Megleno-Romanian zor, which Capidan derives from Bulgarian.^[10][5] The Proto-Slavic noun is related to *zьrěti (“to observe”) and is cognate with Lithuanian žarà (“dawn, sunset”).^[1] Gabinschi groups it with zare “horizon” under one Slavonic etymon.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, Psalm 73: „A ta e dzua și a ta e noaptea, tu sfârșit-ai zorile și soarele” “Thine is the day and thine the night; thou hast made the dawn and the sun”.^[2][3] The Slavonic psalter has зорѩ in the same verse.^[7] Tiktin quotes the word from the Codicele Voronețean in Acts 20:11, the verse where the Slavonic text reads до зорь “until dawn”.^[12][7]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant the light before sunrise and the early morning since the first texts, and most of its use is in adverbial phrases: în zori de zi “at daybreak”, la revărsatul zorilor “at the break of dawn”, din zori și până-n seară “from dawn to dusk”.^[4][12] In the barracks a suna zorile was to sound reveille, and old phrases spoke of singing de zori, a morning serenade for a newly married couple.^[2] At weddings zorile is the name of a dance and of its tune, and of a song for the bride.^[4] Figuratively it is the dawn of something long awaited, as zorii libertății.^[13]

Romanian built a verb on it, a se zori (de ziuă) “to dawn”, recorded from 1825;^[2][14] Graur held this phrase to be the original and a se zări de ziuă a later reshaping.^[2][14] Derivatives include zorea, the morning glory, which matches its French name belle-de-jour, and Zorilă, the dawn in folk mythology.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – zorile in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, Acts 20:11.^[12]
• 1688 – nine times in the Bucharest Bible, for example Judges 16:2.^[15]
• 1825 – the verb zori “to dawn” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[2][3]
• 1870 – zori and ziori “daybreak” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. dawn, daybreak: the light in the sky before sunrise; the time of day when it appears;^[4][2] în zori “at dawn”.^[4][2]
2. (with the article) A folk dance at weddings and its tune; a tune sung to the bride.^[4]
3. (figurative) The beginning of something long awaited.^[13]

Word family

• zorea
• zorit

Related words

• zare
• Old Church Slavonic зорꙗ (zorja)

Usage notes

The word is plural only and usually masculine, zorii, but the feminine articled form zorile is common too.^[4][6]

Of the two verbs spelled zori, zori “to hurry, to urge on” is formed on zor “haste” and is recorded from 1838–1839.^[4][2][17] Zori “to dawn”, usually a se zori de ziuă, is formed on this noun.^[18][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1584
3. ^ 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. zori
4. ^ 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. 1228
5. ^ 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. zori
6. ^ a b c Graur, Alexandru (1963), Etimologii romînești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
7. ^ a b c Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1445
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 654
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 340
11. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 182
12. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. zori
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. zori
14. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)
16. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 720
17. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. zorí 1
18. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 959