Etymologically
Log in

grai

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 23:49. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

grai n (plural grai/grae or grairi/graire)[1]

  • Plural grai or grae, also grairi or graire.[2][1]
  • Other spellings: graiu, greai, grei and grii in Wiktionary;[1] GRAIU, plural grae, graire, graiure, in Pascu, with greiu from P. Papahagi and Mihăileanu and greaiă from Boiagi;[3] gráiu, definite grailu, in Mihăileanu;[4] Graiu, plural grae, in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales;[5] γκράϊου (gráiu), plural gráiari and gráiră, in the Greek script of Nikolaidis's dictionary.[6]
  • Regional forms: gráiu, plural gráie, in the dialect of Metsovo.[7]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Bulgarian грай (graj) according to Wiktionary;[1] Pascu derives it from a Slavic noun meaning "speech, conversation", filed with the verb grescu (“to speak”).[3] Nikolaidis compares Serbian words meaning "word" and "to speak".[6] Romanian grai and Megleno-Romanian grai are borrowed from South Slavic as well;[8][9] BER takes the Romanian word from Bulgarian.[8]

The Slavic words go back to Proto-Slavic *grajь, beside *graja, nouns of the verb *grajati (“to caw, croak”).[10][11] In Bulgarian the rare noun грай means the tune of a song;[8] Serbo-Croatian graja means "din, uproar" and Slovene grajati "to reproach".[8] Ciorănescu reports Petrovici's view that the Romanian verb meaning "to speak" comes from grajáti (“to speak”), which Petrovici distinguishes from the verb meaning "to croak".[12] BER relates the Slavic words to Lithuanian gróti (“to caw, roar”);[8] Wiktionary traces them to Proto-Indo-European *gerh₂- (“to cry hoarsely”).[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu quotes the form greaiă from Boiagi's grammar of 1813.[3]

Semantic evolution

In Aromanian the word means a spoken word, speech, and a language.[2][1] Cunia defines it first as the sound a person makes when speaking, which has a meaning for those who hear it, and then as the words with which a people expresses itself, its language.[2] Mihăileanu quotes nu putui s' li scótu unu graiu di tu gură ("I could not get a word out of his mouth"),[4] and the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales has s-nu da graiu "not to say a word".[5] Grailu mare, literally "the great word", is Easter Sunday.[4][3] In Metsovo it also means "voice".[7]

Timeline

  • 1813 – greaiă in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.[3]
  • 1901 – gráiu “word”, with grailu mare “Easter”, in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1905 – Graiu “word, speech” in the glossary of P. Papahagi's tales.[5]
  • 1909 – γκράϊου (gráiu) “word, speech” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A word; speech.[1][2][4]
  2. A language.[1][2]
  3. (Metsovo) Voice.[7]
  • grescu
  • Romanian grai

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 510
  3. ^ 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, 215
  4. ^ a b c d e Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 221
  5. ^ a b c Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 603
  6. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 148
  7. ^ a b c Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  8. ^ a b c d e Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
  9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 143
  10. ^ Trubačev, Oleg N.; Žuravlev, Anatolij F.; Varbot, Žanna Ž. (eds.) (1974–2021), Ètimologičeskij slovar' slavjanskix jazykov: praslavjanskij leksičeskij fond, vols. 1–42, Moskva: Nauka
  11. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  12. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)