Etymologically
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martsu

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Forms

martsu m, without plural (the month); n, plural martsã or martsuri (the cord).[1][2]

  • Other spellings: MÁRȚU, plural márță and márțurĭ, in Papahagi's dictionary (the cord);[3] Márțu (the month) and márțu, plural marţurle (the cord), in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;[4] marțu, plural -uri, in Dalametra's;[5] μάρτσου (mártsu) in Nikolaidis's Greek script.[6]
  • Regional forms: martsu “March” in Weigand's texts;[7] Marţu in P. Papahagi's tales;[8] mártsu, plural mártsă, for the cord in the dialect of Metsovo.[9]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin Mārtius (“(the month) of Mars, March”),[10][3][2] the adjective of Mārs (“the god Mars”) with the suffix -ius, used as a noun for mēnsis Mārtius.[2] De Vaan traces the name of the god through the older form Māvors to an earlier Latin form shared with Oscan, and considers a foreign origin of that form possible.[11] Pascu files both senses, the month and the cord worn in March, under this one word, and for the cord he compares the Bulgarian name of the same custom.[10]

The Romanian cognate marț is rare, and was used for the month and for the March cord; for the month it has been replaced by martie, from Greek, and the cord is now called mărțișor, a diminutive of marț.[12][10] The western cognates include Italian marzo, French mars, Spanish marzo and Portuguese março.[13]

Semantic evolution

From the name of the month the word passed to the charm of the season: a cord of white and red thread twisted together, which girls and young children wear round the neck or the wrist during the first nine days of March.[14][3] Nikolaidis describes it as a coloured ribbon with a small silver or gold coin that mothers hang on their children's necks on the first of March to guard them against the sun.[6] When the first swallow is seen, the cord is taken off and thrown onto a rose bush or a bramble,[4] or onto trees, so that the swallows can weave it into their nests.[3] Țîrcomnicu adds that it was also tied to the doors of the stables and round the necks of lambs, foals and kids.[15] Cunia records the saying ca Shcurtul di Martsu, "like February to March", for someone who is close by.[14]

Timeline

  • 1894 – martsu “March” in Weigand's glossary.[7]
  • 1901 – Márțu “March” and márțu “the March cord” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[4]
  • 1906 – marțu “the March cord” and Mârțu “March” in Dalametra's dictionary.[5]
  • 1925 – Pascu derives both senses from Latin Mārtius.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. March, the third month of the year.[14][2][10]
  2. A cord of twisted white and red thread worn by girls and young children during the first nine days of March, the Romanian mărțișor.[14][3][2]
  • Romanian marț
  • Romanian mărțișor

Usage notes

Cunia heads a third martsu, plural martsuri, a double win at backgammon;[14] Papahagi derives it from Turkish mars, so it has a separate source.[3]

References

  1. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 615
  2. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  3. ^ a b c d e f Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 657
  4. ^ a b c Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 281
  5. ^ a b Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 127
  6. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 283
  7. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 316
  8. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 634
  9. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
  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, 114
  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. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001)
  13. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  14. ^ 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)
  15. ^ Țîrcomnicu, Emil (2009), Obiceiuri și credințe macedoromâne: dicționar, București