bag

Forms

bag (third-person singular bagã, participle bãgatã or bãgate)^[1]

• First conjugation: aorist bãgai, imperfect bãgam, participle bãgatã, long infinitive bãgari or bãgare.^[2] Katsanis and Dinas give bagu, class 1, with the aorist bágai and the participle bàgatu.^[3]
• Other spellings: bagu in Wiktionary;^[1] bágu in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[4] bagu in DIARO;^[5] BAG in Papahagi's dictionary;^[6] μπάγκου (bágu) in the Greek script of Nikolaidis;^[7] bagu (Meyer's reading) in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770.^[8]
• Regional forms: bágu in the dialect of Metsovo;^[9] bagŭ in the glossary of the ALAR atlas;^[10] bag in Weigand's texts.^[11]

Etymology

The verb is of disputed origin, and Papahagi leaves it unexplained.^[6] Wiktionary gives two views: the verb is either inherited from Vulgar Latin *begō, from Late Latin bīgō (“to put to the yoke”), from Latin bīga (“a two-horse team”),^[1] itself formed from bi- and iuga (“yokes”), or a substratum word.^[1] Ciorănescu also proposes the Latin verb formed from bīga: he takes the first sense to have been yoking animals, still kept in Romanian phrases for putting oxen to the plough, and derives from it the senses of catching, subduing and putting in.^[12] He notes that the vowel of the Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian forms is irregular, since the first syllable would be expected to have e or i, and explains it by an accidental change or by the influence of a Greek verb.^[12]

A Greek origin, from Modern Greek βάζω (vázo, “to put”) or its by-form βάνω (váno), was proposed by Cihac and by Nikolaidis;^[12][7] Wiktionary considers it less likely,^[1] and Ciorănescu finds it insufficient, although the Greek verb is used exactly as the Aromanian one is.^[12] Gustav Meyer, the REW and Rohlfs connected the word with a Romance stem seen in Occitan baga and French bague;^[12] Meyer repeats this in his edition of Kavalliotis.^[8] Miklosich counted it among the pre-Roman words of the Balkans, and Candrea and Philippide called it obscure.^[12]

The verb is shared with Romanian băga and Megleno-Romanian bag.^[12][13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where the word, read by Meyer as bagu, translates Modern Greek βάνω (váno, “I put”).^[8]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is to put or place something, in or on something else.^[15][1] Papahagi lists over twenty senses that grew from it: to apply, enter, engage in service, stuff, meddle, insist, convince, understand, decide, procure, pay attention, pursue, catch, defeat, give up, cry out, think, and, as a reflexive, to lie down to sleep and to grow fat.^[6] Many of them live in set phrases with a noun: Mihăileanu records bagu oara "to notice", bagu ureclia "to listen" and bagu svercă "to grow fat", and the saying s' bágă cu găłiñīle, si scoală cu cucoțiti ("he goes to bed with the hens and gets up with the cocks").^[16] Weigand quotes bag la sholi'e "to send to school".^[11]

Timeline

• 1770 – bagu (Meyer's reading) “I put” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[8]
• 1894 – bag “lay, set, put” in Weigand's glossary.^[11]
• 1901 – bágu “put, thrust in, put on” in Mihăileanu's dictionary, with many phrases.^[4]
• 1909 – Nikolaidis derives it from Greek.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. To put, place, set; to apply.^[1][15][6]
2. To put in, insert, thrust in; to enter; to take into service.^[6][4]
3. (reflexive) To meddle, get involved.^[6]
4. To insist; to convince; to understand; to decide.^[6]
5. (reflexive) To go to bed, lie down.^[1][16][17]
6. In phrases with a noun: bagu oara to notice, bagu ureclia to listen.^[16]

Related words

• bãgari
• bãgare
• bãgat
• nibãgat
• Romanian băga
• Megleno-Romanian bag

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 179
3. ^ Κατσάνης, Νικόλαος; Ντίνας, Κωνσταντίνος (1990), Γραμματική της κοινής κουτσοβλαχικής, Θεσσαλονίκη: Αρχείο Κουτσοβλαχικών Μελετών, p. 137
4. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 61
5. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 90
6. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 252
7. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 308
8. ^ a b c d Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 25
9. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
10. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 113
11. ^ a b c Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 296
12. ^ 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)
13. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 56
14. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 31
15. ^ a b Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
16. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 62
17. ^ Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 321