încălța

Forms

încălța (third-person singular present încalță, past participle încălțat, third-person subjunctive încalțe); first conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *incalciō (“to put shoes on”), formed with in- beside Latin calceō (“to shoe”), according to DER, Candrea–Densusianu, the DA and MDA2.^[2][3][4][5] The REW lists the Romanian verb under the unprefixed *calceāre, and Tiktin too starts from the simple verb.^[6][7] The Latin verb is formed on calceus (“shoe”).^[1][8]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian ncalțu, Megleno-Romanian ancalț and Istro-Romanian ăncoț.^[2][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Italian calzare, French chausser, Spanish calzar and Portuguese calçar, with prefixed forms such as incalzare and encalzar.^[2][3][6] The opposite verb is descălța.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1563, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[7] A Coresi homily quoted by the DA lists among the works of mercy „a încălța desculții” “to shoe the barefoot”.^[4] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons give the participle încălțat for Slavonic “shod”, from 1664.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is putting on footwear, said of the shoe, the foot or the person; by extension it came to mean providing someone with shoes.^[4][5] By analogy it was used of fitting an iron tyre on a wheel or shoeing the runners of a sledge or a plough: a Moldavian document of 1827 notes that two wheels „s-au încălțat” “have been shod”.^[4] The figurative sense “to take someone in, to trick” is common in the colloquial language;^[12] Tiktin quotes it from card players in Zamfirescu's stories.^[7][12]

Old slang used it for “to arrest”, and modern slang adds “to convict” and “to recruit”.^[5][13] A popular phrase, a se încălța cu cineva, means to make an unpleasant acquaintance one cannot get rid of.^[5][4] Aromanian also uses its verb for shoeing a horse and for cheating.^[9]

Timeline

• 1563 – Coresi's Praxiu, the first record.^[7]
• 1664 – the participle încălțat in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.Pet.^[11]
• 1688 – încălțați in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1827 – the sense “to fit a wheel with an iron tyre” in a Moldavian document.^[4]
• 1866 – the date MDA2 gives for its first record, Alecsandri's folk poems.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To put on one's shoes or other footwear;^[12][15] (transitive) to put shoes on someone: Mama a încălțat copilul.^[12][15]
2. (transitive) To buy or give someone shoes.^[5][15]
3. (transitive) To fit iron tyres on the wheels of a cart, or iron on the runners of a sledge.^[12][5]
4. (transitive, figurative, colloquial) To trick or fool someone.^[12][1]
5. (slang) To arrest; to convict.^[5][13]

Word family

• încălțat
• încălțare
• încălțăminte
• încălței
• încălțător

Related words

• descălța
• Aromanian ncalțu
• Latin calceō

Usage notes

Old texts also have the form înculța, in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary;^[5] Candrea and Densusianu take it to be remade after desculța.^[3][7] The proverb până se încalță, soarele se înalță mocks a slow person.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. încălța
3. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. încălța
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. încălța
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1203
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1497
7. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. încălța
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 735
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 14
11. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. încălțat
12. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 537
13. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. încălța
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mark 6:9
15. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. încălța