greu

Forms

greu m (feminine greauã or grau, masculine plural grei, feminine plural greali / greale / greli)^[1]

• Feminine greauã or grau, masculine plural grei, feminine plural greali, greale or greli; the same form is also an adverb.^[1][2]
• Other spellings: GREU, feminine greáŭă, plurals greï and greále, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[3] γκρέου, feminine γκρεάο, plurals γκρέι and γκρεάλι, in Nikolaidis's Greek script, which he transcribes gréu, gręáo, gréi, greále;^[4] feminine greao and plural greale in Weigand's glossary.^[5]
• Regional forms: feminine greáo, plural greále, in the sense of pregnant, in the dialect of Metsovo.^[6]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin grevis (“heavy”),^[3][7][8] the popular form of gravis (“heavy”);^[9][1] Pascu also sets up *grevus.^[10] The change of vowel is put down to the influence of levis (“light”), its opposite,^[9][8][1] and Wiktionary notes that grevis is found in a glossary of the 8th century.^[1] De Vaan traces gravis to Proto-Italic *gʷrau- and Proto-Indo-European *gʷreh₂-u- (“heavy”), a u-stem adjective remade as an i-stem in Italic; its cognates include Ancient Greek βαρύς (barús, “heavy”).^[11]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian greu, Megleno-Romanian greu and Istro-Romanian greu.^[7][12] Further west the popular form gave Italian greve, French grief and Catalan greu.^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest dated record among these sources is Weigand's glossary of 1894, which gives the word as heavy, with somnu for a deep sleep, and the feminine for a pregnant woman.^[5]

Semantic evolution

Pascu gives the senses of the Latin adjective as heavy, laden, pregnant, oppressive and serious.^[10] In Aromanian the word means heavy, and hence hard to do, difficult.^[2][1] Papahagi adds weighty, grave (of an illness), deep (of sleep), rich (greï nicukírī, "rich householders"), and, as a noun, a person of weight, an important man.^[3] As with Latin gravidus (“pregnant”), the feminine also means pregnant, in Romanian and Megleno-Romanian too;^[12] Cunia's phrase is escu greauã, "I am with child".^[2] Cunia also records u leg tu greauã for sticking to one's opinion whatever others think, and a figurative use for big, bad, weak, ugly, deep or rich;^[2] Pascu adds thick and dangerous, and Dalametra's sense beautiful.^[10]

Timeline

• 1894 – feminine greao “heavy” and “pregnant” in Weigand's glossary.^[5]
• 1909 – γκρέου “heavy” in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[4]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from a popular Latin form of gravis.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. heavy, weighty.^[2][1][3]
2. hard, difficult.^[2][1][10]
3. grave, serious (of an illness).^[3]
4. (feminine) pregnant.^[2][3][6]
5. deep (of sleep).^[2][3]
6. (figurative) rich; as a noun, a person of influence.^[3]

Adverb

1. heavily, with difficulty.^[1][3]

Related words

• greatsã
• griutati
• ngrec
• ngriunedz
• Romanian greu

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 514
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. 596
4. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 149
5. ^ 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. 306
6. ^ a b Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
7. ^ a b c Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
9. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ 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, 95
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter