Romanian

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Etymology

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Unknown. Moș and its feminine counterpart moașă (midwife; old woman) (which appears to be older[1][2]) are often considered substratum words related to Albanian moshë or derived from it,[3] but can also possibly be from Latin annōsus (aged, old, full of years) with a loss of the initial vowel as in some other cases (compare mătușă, noaten, nămaie), and the -ș- sound formed as with coș. The change of -n- to -m- is more unusual, but has other instances as well (compare măgar, miel, miță). Its presence in all Eastern Romance languages (compare Aromanian mosh, moashi) and the addition of the prefix stră- also indicates that it is an old word and probably from a Latin source. [4]

Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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moș m (plural moși)

  1. an old man
    Synonym: bătrân

Declension

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Derived terms

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Alexandru Ciorănescu, Dicționarul etimologic român, s.v. "moș" (Tenerife: Universidad de la Laguna, 1958-1966).
  2. ^ Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, ediția a II-a, ed. Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică Iorgu Iordan, s.v. "moș" (Univers Enciclopedic, 1998).
  3. ^ Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “moș”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 274
  4. ^ Romanian Explanatory Dictionary