cheatrã

Forms

cheatrã f (plural chetri or chetsrã or chetsãri or chetsuri)^[1]

• Plural chetri, chetsrã, chetsãri or chetsuri.^[2][1]
• Other spellings: chiatrã in Wiktionary;^[1] KEAÁTRĂ in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] chiătră, plural chetri, in Dalametra;^[4] chiatră in Mihăileanu;^[5] K'atră, plural ketri, in Papahagi's glossary of folk tales;^[6] κιάτρα (kjátră), plural kétri, kétsuri or kétsri, in Nikolaidis's Greek script;^[7] Κιάτρᾳ in Kavalliotis's word list, which its editor reads as kiatră.^[8]
• Regional forms: cheátră, plural chétri, in Metsovo;^[9] ḱetră in the Ohrid–Struga area.^[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin petra (“rock, stone”),^[3][11][1] as Nikolaidis already said.^[7] Latin borrowed the word from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra, “rock”);^[12][1] Lewis & Short note that the native Latin word was saxum.^[13] The Greek word has no accepted etymology: Babiniotis rejects links with πίπτω (píptō, “to fall”) and πετάννυμι (petánnumi, “to spread out”),^[14] and Beekes, as Wiktionary reports, prefers a Pre-Greek origin.^[1]

The Romanian word is piatră.^[15][16] Ciorănescu gives a Megleno-Romanian form beside the Aromanian one,^[15] but Capidan records chiatră only in Țărnareca, as a borrowing from Aromanian.^[17] Further west the Latin word gave Italian pietra, French pierre, Occitan peira, Spanish piedra and Portuguese pedra, and Dalmatian pira.^[18]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where Κιάτρᾳ is the word for “stone”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Besides stone and rock, the word names a precious stone and a gravestone,^[5] a millstone and a whetstone.^[6] Several minerals are called after it: chiatră albă is alum and chiatră aroși graphite.^[4][11] Figuratively it means "nothing": Papahagi's tales have ni feată, ni ketri ("neither a daughter nor stones", that is, nothing at all).^[6][3] To throw stones (aruc chetri) is to sow discord or make accusations,^[19][4][3] and ca di cheatrã, "as from stone", means never, since a stone never comes.^[3][4] Speaking to stones is speaking in vain.^[3][19]

Timeline

• 1770 – Κιάτρᾳ “stone” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[8]
• 1901 – chiatră “stone, precious stone, gravestone” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[5]
• 1906 – chiătră “stone”, with ca di chiătră “never”, in Dalametra's dictionary.^[4]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin petra.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A stone; a rock.^{[19][3][9][1]}
2. A precious stone; a gravestone.^[5]
3. A millstone or a whetstone.^[6]
4. (figurative) Nothing; in phrases, never, in vain.^[3][6][4]
5. (figurative, plural) Intrigues, accusations.^[3][11][19]

Related words

• Romanian piatră

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. 284
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 703
4. ^ a b c d e f Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 47
5. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 105
6. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 621
7. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 214
8. ^ a b c 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. 78
9. ^ a b Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
10. ^ Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 31
11. ^ a b c d 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, 62
12. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
15. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
16. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
17. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 68
18. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
19. ^ 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)