Etymologically
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lai

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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]
  • 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