lai

Forms

lai^[1]

• Feminine lai or lae; plural lãi or lai for both genders.^[2] Weigand records the articled laiul and laiulu and the feminine laie, articled laia.^[3]
• Other spellings: laiu as Wiktionary's alternative form;^[1] laiŭ in Bara's dictionary.^[4]
• Regional forms: lai in the village of Turia, where it names the black sheep (o'ai lai).^[5]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown: Papahagi marks it as uncertain,^[6] and Ciorănescu finds none of the explanations proposed for the Romanian word sufficient.^[7] Wiktionary compares Romanian lai and Albanian ljaj.^[1] P. Papahagi derived the Romanian word from this Albanian adjective, meaning reddish or golden-blond, which might itself continue Latin flāvus (“yellow”);^[8][9] Ciorănescu objects to the sounds and the sense, and notes that no other Latin word entered Romanian through Albanian.^[7]

Pascu, after Papahagi, takes it from a Latin adjective *gallus (“black”) formed from galla (“gall-nut”), the oak gall used to dye black.^[8][9] Pușcariu proposed lābēs (“fall; stain”), which Ciorănescu finds unlikely, since the sense of a stain is secondary in Latin and the sense black is secondary in Romanian, where the word is first the natural grey of some wool.^[7][9] He rejects as very improbable a Greek source Ancient Greek λάγειος (lágeios, “of a hare”), and wonders whether the colour of washed wool points to la (“to wash”), though he finds that derivation unclear.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu lists the adjective from sources that include Boiagi's grammar of 1813, with the senses black and miserable.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The Aromanian word means black, and figuratively poor, unfortunate and wretched, or wicked.^{[10][1][3][8]} Cunia also gives it the sense of mourning.^[10] In the folk texts Weigand recorded it is often used before a noun with no clear sense of its own.^[3] In Turia it names a black sheep or lamb,^[5] and Ciorănescu stresses that in Romanian the word is applied to the natural colour of wool.^[7]

Timeline

• 1813 – lai “black; miserable” in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.^[8]
• 1894 – lai “black, poor, unhappy” in Weigand's glossary.^[3]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from a Latin *gallus, from galla “gall-nut”.^[8]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Black.^[10][1][3]
2. (figurative) Poor, wretched, unfortunate.^[10][1][3]
3. (figurative) Wicked, bad.^[10][1]

Related words

• lãeatsã
• lãiturã
• lãescu
• lãilji
• Romanian lai

Usage notes

Cunia lists a separate interjection lai (often olai or o lai), used to call or address a man and sometimes a woman;^[2] Dalametra records it as a woman's call to a man,^[11] and the glossary of Papahagi's Basme renders lai! with Romanian măi!.^[12] None of the sources gives the origin of the interjection, so it has no section of its own here.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 573
3. ^ 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. 313
4. ^ Bara, Mariana (2024), Dictsiunarlu ti cathi dzuuã, online at dixionline.net
5. ^ a b Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 368
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1237
7. ^ a b c d e 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 c d e f 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, 90
9. ^ a b c Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ 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)
11. ^ Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 117
12. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 625