Etymologically
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leg

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Forms

leg (third-person singular leagã, participle ligatã)[1]

  • First-class verb: aorist ligai, imperfect ligam, participle ligatã, long infinitive ligari or ligare;[2] Papahagi gives ligáï, -gát, -gáre.[3]
  • Other spellings: légu in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[4] λέγκου (légu), aorist λιγκάϊ (ligái), in the Greek script of Nikolaidis;[5] legu as Wiktionary's alternative form.[1]
  • Regional forms: leg, first person plural lig'ām, in the village of Turia;[6] légu in the dialect of Metsovo;[7] leg in the glossary of the ALAR atlas.[8]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin ligō (“to bind, to tie”),[3][9][1] a verb Pascu glosses as to bind, attach and knot, and to join or unite.[9] Nikolaidis too derives it from Latin.[5]

The verb is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian lega, Megleno-Romanian leg and Istro-Romanian legå.[10][11][12][13] Further west the Latin verb gave Italian legare, French lier, Catalan lligar and Spanish liar.[14]

In Latin the simple verb is recorded only from Catullus on, after a series of compounds such as alligō (“to tie, to fetter”) and obligō (“to tie up, to oblige”); de Vaan therefore suspects an older verb behind it and reconstructs Proto-Italic *-ligā-, perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *liǵ- (“to tie”).[15] Apart from Albanian lidh (“to tie”), which can be explained in other ways, it has no certain cognates.[15][16]

Earliest recorded meaning

Pascu's sources for the verb include Boiagi's grammar of 1813, the oldest dated one, and he gives it the basic senses to bind and to attach.[9]

Semantic evolution

From the Latin sense, to fasten or bind, the Aromanian verb kept the physical senses (to tie, to tie shut, to knot) and developed others.[3][17] Used reflexively, it means to bind oneself by a promise.[3][9][18] It is also said of binding someone by spells, so as to make him impotent;[3] of fruit trees setting fruit, and figuratively of a mind that has ripened;[3][18] and of an army surrounding a place, as in askérea ligă pădúrea “the army surrounded the forest”.[3] Pascu also records the senses to bind books and to besiege from Dalametra.[9]

Timeline

  • 1813 – the verb and its derivative ligare “union, alliance” in Boiagi's grammar, as cited by Pascu.[9]
  • 1901 – légu “to tie; to promise” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1905 – leg “to tie; to decide; to pledge oneself” in the glossary of Papahagi's Basme.[18]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin ligāre.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To tie, to bind together, to fasten.[17][3][1]
  2. To tie shut (the mouth of a bag).[17][4]
  3. To knot.[3]
  4. (reflexive) To pledge oneself, to commit oneself.[3][9][18]
  5. To bind by sorcery, to make impotent by spells.[3]
  6. (of fruit trees) To set fruit;[3][18] (figurative) to ripen, to mature.[3][18]
  7. To persist obstinately in something.[3][18]
  8. To surround, to besiege.[3][9]
  • Romanian lega
  • Megleno-Romanian leg

References

  1. ^ a b c d 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. 583
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 733
  4. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 260
  5. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 257
  6. ^ Бара, Мариана; Каль, Теде; Соболев, Андрей Н. (2005), Южноарумынский говор села Турия (Малый диалектологический атлас балканских языков, серия монографий 1), p. 401
  7. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 141
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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, 107
  10. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
  12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 168
  13. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  15. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  17. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net)
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 627