Etymologically
Log in

picurar

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 26 October 2026 at 23:46. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Forms

picurar m (plural picurari, definite articulation picurarlu, definite plural picurarlji)[1]

  • Plural picurari, definite singular picurarlu, definite plural picurarlji.[1][2]
  • Other spellings: picuraru in Wiktionary;[1] PICURAR in Papahagi's dictionary and in Pascu;[3][4] picuráru, definite picurarlu, in Mihăileanu;[5] picourâr in Dalametra;[6] pikurar in Weigand;[7] πικουράρου (picuraru) in the Greek script of Nikolaidis's dictionary,[8] and in Kavalliotis's word list, which its editor reads as pekuraru.[9]
  • Regional forms: picurárlu, plural picurări, picurárl'i or picuráren'i, in Karitsa and Fteri.[10]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin pecorārius (“herdsman”),[3][4][1][10] a derivative of pecus (“livestock, cattle”) with the suffix -ārius.[1] Lewis and Short record the Latin word only once, as a farmer of the public pastures and herds,[11] and Meyer-Lübke writes it as a reconstructed form.[12] Nikolaidis gives pecuārius (“cattle-breeder”) as the source.[8]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian păcurar, Megleno-Romanian picurar and Istro-Romanian pecurår.[13][14][4] In Romanian it has largely been replaced by cioban, because of the clash with its homonym păcurar, a worker who extracts petroleum; it survives mainly in Transylvania.[13] Further west the Latin word survives in Italian pecoraio, Sicilian picuraru, Galician pegueiro and Portuguese pegureiro.[13][12]

De Vaan lists pecus among the derivatives of pecū (“flock, herd”), from Proto-Italic *peku-, *pekos- and Proto-Indo-European *peḱ-os (“what is fleeced”), beside *peḱ-u- (“cattle”).[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's Greek–Aromanian–Albanian word list of 1770, where it translates Modern Greek βοσκός (voskós, “herdsman”);[9] Meyer reads it as pekuraru.[9]

Semantic evolution

The Latin word for a keeper of herds became the ordinary Aromanian word for a shepherd: Cunia defines the picurar as the man who watches and grazes the sheep, sells their milk and makes cheese at the sheepfold.[2] From the shepherd's life in the mountains it came to mean a simple, unlearned man:[2][5] Mihăileanu gives a lái picuráre "you simpleton".[5] Dalametra uses it for the crested lark,[6][3] which Cunia calls puljlu picurar "the shepherd bird".[2]

Timeline

  • 1770 – pekuraru “herdsman” in Kavalliotis's word list, as read by Meyer.[9]
  • 1894 – pikurar “shepherd” in Weigand's glossary.[7]
  • 1901 – picuráru “shepherd; simple man” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.[5]
  • 1906 – picourâr “crested lark” in Dalametra's dictionary.[6]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A shepherd.[1][2][3]
  2. (figurative) A simple, unlearned man.[2][5]
  3. The crested lark.[3][4][6]
  • Romanian păcurar

Usage notes

Capidan notes that Aromanian lacks Romanian păstor and uses picurar instead, which kept out Turkish çoban, widespread among the Albanians, Greeks and Daco-Romanians.[16]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 818
  3. ^ a b c d e Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 972
  4. ^ a b c d 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, 142
  5. ^ a b c d e Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 409
  6. ^ a b c d Dalametra, I. (1906), Dicționar macedo-român, București: Academia Română, p. 165
  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. 324
  8. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 423
  9. ^ a b c d Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 28
  10. ^ a b Ζανέκα, Στεργιανή, Λεξικό ονομάτων και όρων του βλάχικου ιδιώματος της Καρίτσας–Φτέρης Πιερίας (typescript, fieldwork 1985; e-book at vlahoi.net), p. 107
  11. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  13. ^ 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)
  14. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  15. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  16. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1932), Aromânii: dialectul aromân. Studiu lingvistic, București: Academia Română (Academia Română, Studii și cercetări XX), p. 147