Moldaviann.adj.

Brit.

/mɒlˈdeɪvɪən/, U.S.

/mɑlˈdeɪviən/,

/mɔlˈdeɪviən/,

/moʊlˈdeɪviən/

Forms: 1600s Moldauian, 1600s– Moldavian.

Origin: From a proper name, combined with an English element. Etymons: proper name Moldavia , -an suffix.

Etymology: < Moldavia, the name of a territory in south-eastern Europe to the north-west of the Black Sea (post-classical Latin Moldavia , Romanian Moldovă : see note s.v. Moldovan n. and adj.) + -an suffix. Compare earlier Moldave n.The name of the region is probably derived from the name of the Moldava River (Romanian Moldovă : see note s.v. Moldovan n. and adj.) in north-eastern Romania.

A. n.

a. A native or inhabitant of Moldavia, a region (now forming a province of Romania) on the lower Danube between Wallachia and Ukraine.Moldavia was an autonomous principality from 1349, became subject to Ottoman suzerainty in the 16th cent., became a Russian protectorate in 1826, and joined with Wallachia in 1861 to form the state of Romania.

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1603 R. Knolles Gen. Hist. Turkes 634 Grittus..missing of the Moldauian, fell vpon Francis Schenden.

1682 P. Ricaut Present State Ottoman Empire i. xiv. 113 John a Moldavian born.., was preferred by Selymus to the Principality.

1729 T. Consett tr. Present State Church of Russia II. 446 To leave his Allies the Walachians and Moldavians to the Resentment of the Turks for their intended Revolt to the Tsar.

1806 R. Heber Jrnl. Apr. in A. Heber Life R. Heber (1830) I. viii. 258 While we were thus employed in the kabak two Moldavians came in.

1835 Penny Cycl. IV. 341/1 The majority of the Bessarabians are Moldowans or Moldavians.

1851 G. Borrow Lavengro xlviii The cuffs which I had seen him bestow upon the Moldavian.

1881 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 10 131 The custom of entombing such vessels with the remains of the deceased was practised by other nations than the Romans; for example, among certain Indian tribes, the Moldavians, Caubees, etc.

1936 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 30 363 The impending disintegration of the Ottoman Empire arouses national feeling among the Moldavians and Wallachians in the Danubian principalities.

1999 Encycl. Brit. Online (Version 99.1) at Bukovina [Bukovina was] settled by both Ukrainians (Ruthenians) and Romanians (Moldavians).

b. A native or inhabitant of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldavia (1924–40) or of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldavia (1940–1, 1944–91), now the independent Republic of Moldova. Cf. Moldovan n. 1.The Autonomous S.S.R. set up in 1924 comprised a small strip of land north of the Dniester. The S.S.R. established in 1940 comprised part of this land (‘left-bank’ Moldavia) and the territory between the Dniester and the Prut (Bessarabia or ‘right-bank’ Moldavia), ceded from Romania.

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1942 K. W. Deutsch in Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 36 535 Seven of these [peoples] reached some form of statehood between 1900 and 1941: Albanians, Irish, Byelo-Russians, Karelians, Moldavians—the three last-named only as ‘Union Republics’ within the federal framework of the U.S.S.R.

1943 tr. J. Stalin Speech in Great Patriotic War of Soviet Union 7 Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldavians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaidjanians, and other free peoples of the Soviet Union.

1972 E. G. Lewis Multilingualism in Soviet Union ii. 31 Moldavians have close ties with the Ukraine and of course with Romania.

1986 R. Karklins Ethnic Relations in USSR vii. 201 Traditional weddings are a crucial ethnic custom for Moldavians.

1990 Times 2 Nov. 15/2 In 1940..Stalin occupied Bessarabia and sought to stamp out the Romanian identity of its majority population by renaming them Moldavians.

2. The Romanian language as spoken and written in Moldavia (see sense A. 1a); the Romanian language as spoken in the former Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldavia (see sense A. 1b).Differences from the main Romanian dialect are small (before the establishment of the state of Romania in 1861, Moldavian was often used to refer generally to what is now called Romanian). However, Moldavian as spoken in Soviet Moldavia was treated as a separate language from Romanian and until 1989 was written in the Cyrillic alphabet. See also Moldovan n. 3.

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the mind > language > languages of the world > Indo-Hittite > [noun] > Indo-European > postulated Italo-Celtic > Romance > Romanian > Moldavian

Moldavian1847

Moldovan1992

1847 W. C. L. Martin Ox i. 8/1 The names of this animal in the present day are as follow:—bison,..in Polish tur,..in Moldavian zimbr [etc.].

1854 W. M. Thackeray Newcomes I. viii. 74 Mira Miles wished she knew a little Moldavian, not so much that she might speak it, but that she might be heard to speak it.

1904 Speaker 24 Dec. 320/1 Translations from the Turkish, Arabic,..or Moldavian.

1972 E. G. Lewis Multilingualism in Soviet Union ix. 264 Moldavian..is gradually establishing itself as a separate indigenous Soviet language because of Soviet policy to accentuate differences between languages which are spoken both inside and outside the USSR.

1975 K. Katzner Langs. of World ii. 122 Moldavian is spoken in the Moldavian S.S.R., the area traditionally known as Bessarabia.

1989 Times 22 Dec. 7/7 The republic's language, Romanian—which Stalin forced them to write in the Cyrillic script and call Moldavian.

B. adj.

1. Of or relating to Moldavia (see sense A. 1a), its inhabitants, or their language.

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the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Europe > countries of Eastern Europe > [adjective] > regions of Romania

Moldavian1625

Wallachianc1791

Transylvanian1843

Moldo-Wallachian1848

Moldavo-Wallachian1971

Moldovan1990

1625 M. Broniovius in S. Purchas Pilgrimes III. iii. 633 There are found some Moldavian passages in the Nester.

1709 I. Watts Horæ Lyricæ (ed. 2) ii. 230 How fair a harvest of the slaughter'd Turks Strow'd the Moldavian fields?

1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xxvi. 575 When Darius advanced into the Moldavian desert..the king of the Scythians sent him a mouse, a frog, a bird, and five arrows.

1822 P. B. Shelley Hellas 16 The false Moldavian serfs fled.

1851 G. Borrow Lavengro II. xxiii. 205 Should the Armenian insist upon it, I will accept a seat at the desk, opposite the Moldavian clerk.

1911 Encycl. Brit. XXIII. 834/2 The Moldavian voivodate was founded..by Vlach immigrants from Hungary, during the first half of the 14th century.

1990 D. Rutherford Game of Sudden Death (BNC) 267 They had been darkened by centuries of smoke from votive candles but still held the compelling Byzantine drama of the sixteenth-century Moldavian artists.

1992 S. White After Gorbachev (ed. 3) 169 There were demonstrations in Moldavia (renamed Moldova) calling for..official status for the Moldavian language.

2. Of, relating to, or designating the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldavia, now the independent Republic of Moldova (see sense A. 1b). Cf. Moldovan adj.Uses relating to language have been placed at sense B. 1; on the identity of the language spoken in Soviet Moldavia, see note at sense A. 2.

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1925 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 19 345 In an attempt to regain Bessarabia, an adjoining Moldavian Republic was brought into being [by the Soviet Government].

1941 Amer. Jrnl. Internat. Law 35 146 [On 2 August 1940] Soviet Russian Parliament passed a bill providing for formation of a Moldavian Federal Soviet Republic, consisting of the former Moldavian autonomous Soviet Republic and the greater part of Soviet-occupied Bessarabia.

1959 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 53 401 The absence of a Moldavian Foreign Minister may reflect its sensitive relationship to neighboring Communist Rumania, of which it is in reality an unredeemed ethnic territory.

1967 R. Conquest Soviet Nationalities Policy in Practice v. 115 Since 1925 the number of Union Republics has increased with the establishment of the Tadzhik (1929), Kazakh and Kirghiz (1936).., and Moldavian (1940) SSRs.

1996 Economist 5 Oct. 55/3 His [sc. Alexander Lebed's] promotion has unsettled Transdniestrian leaders..and the Moldavian government, which regards him as a Russian nationalist.

Compounds

Moldavian balm n. a dracocephalum of eastern Europe, Siberia, etc., Dracocephalum moldavica, sometimes grown as an ornamental or medicinal plant.

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the world > plants > particular plants > plants and herbs > according to family > labiate plant or plants > [noun] > dragon's head

Turkey balm1688

dragon's head1753

Moldavian balm1760

dracocephalum1840

Moldavian mint1892

1760 J. Lee Introd. Bot. App. 319 Moldavian Baulm, Dracocephalum.

1852 G. W. Johnson Cottage Gardeners' Dict. 610/1 Moldavian Palm [sic], Dracocephalum moldavicum.

1952 A. G. L. Sanders Sanders' Encycl. Gardening (ed. 22) 169 Dracocephalum (Dragonhead)... Annual Species Cultivated: D. Moldavica, ‘Moldavian Balm’, blue, July and Aug., 12 to 18 in., E. Siberia.

1996 Chiltern Seeds Catal. 88 Moldavian Balm. Both the grey-green leaves and long, dense spikes..of this attractive bushy annual are pleasantly scented.

Moldavian cloak n. rare a type of woman's cloak with a long cape over the shoulders acting as sleeves, fashionable in Britain around the 1850s; cf. Moldave n. 2.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.

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1890 Cent. Dict. Moldavian cloak, a long outer garment worn by women about 1850, having a cape in front covering the arms and serving on each side as a kind of sleeve.

Moldavian mantle n. rare = Moldavian cloak n.Apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.

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1975 C. Calasibetta Fairchild's Dict. Fashion 348/2 Moldavian mantle, full-length woman's mantle with long capes over the shoulders to form elephant sleeves.

Moldavian mint n. rare = Moldavian balm n.

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