bun

Forms

bun m (feminine bunã, plural bunj, feminine plural buni or bune)^[1]

• Feminine bunã, masculine plural bunj, feminine plural buni or bune.^[2][1]
• Other spellings: bunu in Wiktionary and DIARO;^[1][3] BUN, feminine -nă, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[4] μπούνου in the Greek script of Nikolaidis, which he transcribes búnu, feminine -na.^[5]
• Regional forms: bun, feminine b'unā, in the village of Turia;^[6] búnu “the good, a favour” in the dialect of Metsovo.^[7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin bonus (“good”).^[4][8][1] Pascu derives the noun bun "the good" from the neuter bonum (“moral good, virtue”).^[8]

The word is common to Eastern Romance: Romanian bun, Megleno-Romanian bun and Istro-Romanian bur.^[9][10][11] It has cognates in all the Romance languages, among them Italian buono, French bon, Spanish bueno and Portuguese bom;^[12] Meyer-Lübke notes that in southern Italy and in Aromanian the word also serves as the adverb "well".^[12]

The word goes back to Old Latin duenos and duonus; de Vaan reconstructs Proto-Italic *dweno- (“good”), whose further origin in Proto-Indo-European is disputed.^[13][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu's sources, the oldest of them Boiagi's grammar of 1813, give the adjective as "good" and the noun as "good" and "pleasure".^[8]

Semantic evolution

Besides "good" in the moral and practical sense, the word means "genuine, full" with kinship terms, as Romanian does: Papahagi quotes cusurín bun "first cousin".^[4][15] Used as a noun it means a good deed or a person's welfare, and in the plural the good ones;^[4][16][17] Weigand records bunile for the good fairies, and Dalametra the plural for the notables of a village.^[4][16][17] Pascu also lists the noun as the name of a children's disease and of a malignant pustule.^[8] As an adverb it means "well".^[16][3][12]

Timeline

• 1813 – the adjective and the noun in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[8]
• 1894 – bun “good”, with the plural bunile “the good fairies”, in Weigand's glossary.^[16]
• 1906 – bun “good, sincere, innocent” in Dalametra's dictionary.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Good; kind, doing good to others.^[1][18][4]
2. (with kinship terms) Full, germane: cusurín bun “first cousin”.^[4]
3. Sincere, innocent.^[17]

Noun

1. The good; a good deed, a favour.^[4][7]
2. (plural) The good ones; the notables of a village; the good fairies.^[17][16]

Adverb

1. Well.^[16][3]

Word family

• nibun

Related words

• ghini
• Romanian bun

References

1. ^ a b c d e 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. 216
3. ^ a b c Caragiu Marioțeanu, Matilda et al. (1997), Dicționar aromân (macedo-vlah) DIARO, A–D, București, p. 130
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 295
5. ^ Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 328
6. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 348
7. ^ a b Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
8. ^ 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. 1, 54
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. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 106
11. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 20
12. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
13. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
16. ^ a b c d e f Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 298
17. ^ a b c d e Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 45
18. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)