area

Forms

area (adverb)^[1]

• Other spellings: AREA in Papahagi's dictionary;^[2] areă in Dalametra's Romanian-based spelling;^[3] Areă in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales^[4] and in Geagea;^[5] αραιά, read area, in the Greek script of Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[6]
• Pascu also records the spelling ared.^[7]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek αραιά (araiá, “sparsely, at wide intervals, rarely”),^[2][5] the adverb of the adjective αραιός (araiós, “thin, sparse”).^[8][7] Papahagi adds that popular Greek uses the form αριά (ariá) in the same sense,^[2] and Geagea gives both forms as the source.^[5] Pascu and Nikolaidis name the adjective as the etymon,^[7][6] and Nikolaidis compares Romanian rar (“rare”).^[6] Ciorănescu, on the other hand, lists area beside Aromanian rar under Romanian rar, which he derives from Latin rārus (“rare”).^[9]

In Medieval Greek the adverb also had the form αρά (ará), in phrases meaning "now and then, at long intervals".^[8] The Modern Greek adjective continues Ancient Greek ἀραιός (araiós, “thin, slender, with open spaces”), used since Homer of thin limbs and narrow entrances and, as a technical term, of loose or porous matter.^[10][11][12] Beekes considers that the word probably began with a digamma ϝ-, but finds no further explanation for it.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dictionaries gloss it as "rarely, seldom": Dalametra gives areă yîni ("he comes rarely").^[3]

Semantic evolution

The Greek adverb referred to things spaced far apart, in place and in time.^[5][8] Geagea defines the Aromanian word as an adverb of both place and time,^[5] and Cunia's definition covers things that lie far from one another as well as things that happen rarely.^[1] Papahagi quotes the gardening saying cîț ma areá práșil'i, ahîț ma groși s' fac ("the more sparsely leeks are planted, the thicker they grow").^[2]

Timeline

• 1905 – Areă “rarely” in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales.^[4]
• 1906 – areă “rarely, seldom” in Dalametra's dictionary.^[3]
• 1909 – αραιά (area) “rarely” in Nikolaidis, from Greek ἀραιός.^[6]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Greek ἀραιός.^[7]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Rarely, seldom.^[2][3][1]
2. Sparsely, far apart from one another.^[1][5]

Related words

• rar
• Modern Greek αραιά (araiá)

Usage notes

Papahagi gives aréțcu and rar as synonyms.^[2] Pascu records the derivative ariliche "rarity" from Dalametra.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 115
2. ^ a b c d e f Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 195
3. ^ a b c d Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 22
4. ^ a b Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 534
5. ^ a b c d e f Geagea, Christea (1932), Elementul grec în dialectul aromân, Cernăuți: Institutul de Arte Grafice și Editură Glasul Bucovinei (offprint from Codrul Cosminului VII, pp. 205–431), p. 314
6. ^ a b c d Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 66
7. ^ a b c d e 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. 2, 16
8. ^ a b c Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
9. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
10. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
11. ^ a b Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ Chantraine, Pierre (2009), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue grecque: histoire des mots, new ed. with a supplement (Chroniques d'étymologie grecque 1–10), Paris: Klincksieck