încerca

Forms

încerca (third-person singular present încearcă, past participle încercat, third-person subjunctive încerce) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *incircō, a popular Latin compound of circō (“to go round”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The DA explains that its original sense was to encircle, and that it later took the senses of the simple cerca and largely replaced it.^[4] Candrea and Densusianu list Romance verbs formed in the same way: Old French encerchier and Spanish encercar, Portuguese encercar, Catalan encercar and Occitan encercar.^[6] Ciorănescu, by contrast, treats it as a formation from Romanian în- + cerca within Romanian; its use merges with that of the simple verb, and in literature încerca is now preferred.^[7][7]

The Latin verb, recorded late with the sense to traverse, is formed from circus (“circle”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from Anton Pann in 1837.^[5] MDA2 dates it by Bălcescu's history of Michael the Brave, published in 1878, where the reflexive means “to attempt”: „Ladislau ... se încearcă a pune o stavilă furiei lor” “Ladislas tried to set a barrier to their fury”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

Its senses follow those of cerca: “to examine, test”, “to try, attempt”, “to try on”, “to taste” and “to experience, suffer”.^[4][7] Tiktin also gives “to visit, afflict”, of fevers and remorse, and “to suffer (defeats)”.^[5] Pontbriant in 1862 glosses it “to try, attempt; to put to the test; to risk”.^[9]

The derivatives are încercare “attempt, trial”, încercat “experienced” and încercător.^[6] A Romance comparison by Ungureanu sets the sense “to try, taste” beside Venetian and Ladin cercar.^[10]

Timeline

• 1837 – first record, in Anton Pann.^[5]
• 1862 – Pontbriant: “to try; to test; to risk”.^[9]
• 1878 – “to try to” in Bălcescu's history, published that year.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To test something to check its qualities.^[2]
2. Reflexive reciprocal: to measure one's strength against someone.^[2][3]
3. To undertake something as an exercise or trial; to try, attempt, to strive to: Încearcă să doarmă.^[2][1]
4. To feel a sensation or emotion; of feelings, to come over someone.^[2][3]
5. To try on clothes or shoes.^[2]
6. To taste food.^[3]

Word family

• încercare
• încercat
• încercător

Related words

• cerca
• Latin circō

Usage notes

A-și încerca norocul means “to try one's luck”, and pe încercate “by trial”.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 539
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1205
4. ^ a b c d e 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. încerca
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. încercá
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ 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), p. s.v. cerca
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 332
10. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 335