Hopefully by now you know that măr (mur) means “apple”, from the Latin.
However there’s an interesting expression using this word, a bate măr pe cineva, literally “to beat someone apple” means to issue a severe beat down on someone.
You can hear Guta issue this phrase around minute 2:00 where he says (of Stefan cel Mare), a batut măr pe tatari, meaning he beat the sh*t out of the Tatars, referencing several of his historical victories over regional Muslim forces.
Interestingly enough, the video itself is something only running on ETNO TV and is kind of like a feature-length commercial for Cotnari wineries. You can see all kinds of delightful, traditional Romanian things, from the “barrel” like glasses, the decorations on the table and walls, as well as the old banner of Moldova.
Cotnari, referring to both the brand of wine as well as a specific area of vineyards, was indeed started by Stefan cel Mare during his reign.
AND NOW YOU KNOW!
All Things Romania 
I guess a rather correct translation of ‘a bate pe cineva măr’ is ‘to beat to a pulp’
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A bate mar: derives from the practice of harvesting hard to reach fruits by smashing the apple/plum tree with sticks in order to make the fruits drop. long and painful process for both the tree and the harvesting person.
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I was wondering about that because I knew it had to come from somewhere – I guess where I was raised, we just picked apples and didn’t beat the tree half to death first :P
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that’s because you used apples for eating, not for making tuica :)
actually “beating” the apple tree is easier than hand picking the damn eco-fruits..
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why on earth would you watch etno tv?? I wouldn’t go around bragging about that :))
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Wha? How do you think I got to be more Romanian than you? :P
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The expression “frumoasa foc” (fire beautiful or firely beautiful if you prefer more sense to the expression) is a lot more used, in fact it’s the first time i hear about “frumoasa mar” and I am a Romanian living in Romania, so not sure it exists.
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Yeah… I just made it up for you, to wonder, lol.
P.S. It’s merely used in Dobrogea, but probably it doesn’t exist.
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There’s another one: “frumoasa mar”, meaning drop dead beautiful (abaut a girl, of course)
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Haven’t heard that one, albeit it sounds plausible. The more common version would be “frumoasa foc” (“on fire with beauty” as it were).
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to beat someone apple!!! hahahahah
I am really not a big fan of this style of music in Romania or in fact any of their traditional music (sorry), but you made me a big fan of their expressions.
You’re doing a great job with this blog! i think you’re succeeding in the impossible: making romanian people like themselves more :P
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