vãr

Forms

vãr (feminine vãrã; no plural)^[1]

• Cunia treats vãrnu, vãrãun, verun and vrãn as the same word.^[1]
• Other spellings: VĂR, feminine vắră, and VÎR, feminine vî'ră, in Papahagi's dictionary;^[2][3] βἄρα (vără) in Nikolaidis's Greek script.^[4]
• Pascu records vîr in Dalametra and Papahagi, vâr in Nikolaidis and Papahagi, and verun in Dalametra and Boiagi.^[5]
• Regional forms: văr in the Ohrid–Struga region.^[6]

Etymology

It is a short form of vãrnu: Papahagi and Cunia refer the shorter form to it,^[3][1] and Pascu files it among its forms.^[5] For Wiktionary, vãrnu is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vēreūnus (“truly one”), from Latin vērē (“truly”) and ūnus (“one”);^[7] Papahagi gives the same Latin source.^[8] Pascu reconstructs *velis-ūnus instead, on the pattern of quīvīs (“anyone you like”),^[5] and Nikolaidis derives it from vel (“or”) and ūnus;^[4] Ciorănescu calls this second derivation uncertain.^[9]

It corresponds to Romanian vreun and Megleno-Romanian vrin,^[9] and Italian veruno is formed in the same way.^[9][7]

Latin vērē is the adverb of vērus (“true”),^[10] which de Vaan traces to Proto-Italic *wēro- and Proto-Indo-European *ueh₁-ro- (“true”).^[11]

Semantic evolution

As a pronoun it means "someone, anyone", and with a negation "no one": di soi vãr nu-armasi "none of the family was left".^[1][3] As an adjective it means "some, any": vãr per di lãnã "a single hair of wool".^[1][2] Before a number the feminine vãrã means "about": vi'ră pátru l'épuri "some four hares".^[3][1]

Timeline

• 1909 – βἄρα (vără) in Nikolaidis's dictionary.^[4]
• 1925 – Pascu files vîr and vâr among the forms of vîrnu.^[5]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. Someone, anyone.^[1][3]
2. (with a negation) Nobody, no one.^[1][3]

Adjective

1. Some, any.^[1][2]
2. (feminine vãrã, before a number) About, approximately.^[3][1]

Related words

• vãrnu
• Romanian vreun

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1077
2. ^ a b c Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1257
3. ^ a b c d e f g Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 1271
4. ^ a b c Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 112
5. ^ 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, 180
6. ^ Марковиќ, Марјан (2007), Ароманскиот и македонскиот говор од охридско-струшкиот регион (во балкански контекст), Скопје, p. 74
7. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1117
9. ^ 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)
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill