întortochea

Forms

întortochea (third-person singular present întortochează, past participle întortocheat), 1st conjugation^[1] MDA2 lists the variants întortoca, întortochia, întortoia and tortochia.^[2] Tiktin quotes întortoca from Marian's book on birth customs: „Mulți părinți ... îi întortoacă (copilului) numele” “many parents … twist the child's name”, so that “Nicanor” becomes “Canonir”.^[3]

Etymology

In DEX and MDA2 it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *intorticulō, a verb reconstructed on intortus (“twisted”), the participle of intorqueō (“to twist”).^[4][2][1] Pușcariu, in his dictionary and in volume VII of Dacoromania, and the DAR proposed the same Latin verb, which they compare with French entortiller and Spanish entortijar.^[5] Wiktionary gives the form as *intorticlō, or derives the variant întortoca from *intorticō.^[1] The French verb is now traced to another reconstruction, Vulgar Latin *intortiliō, built on Latin tortilis (“twisted, coiled”).^[1] Wiktionary compares the Romanian verb with it and with Catalan entortellar and Italian intortigliare.^[1]

Ciorănescu disagrees: for him it is a derivative, from Romanian întort (“twisted”), with an unclear, apparently expressive suffix.^[5] Tiktin also starts from the adjective: in his view the variant in ⟨-toca⟩ was the older form, to which a present in ⟨-tochez⟩ was made, and the infinitive in ⟨-tochea⟩ followed from that present.^[3] He names the Latin verb as the other possibility.^[3] Ciorănescu finds this route through the present less likely.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Polizu's dictionary of 1857, with the sense “to wind, twist, twirl excessively or in a confusing way”.^[3] MDA2 dates it from Odobescu's writings, in the edition of 1887, where it means to tangle matters on purpose: „Oricît am voi să întortochem lucrurile” “however much we may want to twist things”.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb is first transitive, “to twist, to wind”, and is used figuratively of words, things and minds that are twisted to confuse: a text cited by Tiktin speaks of turning the heads of the poor in spirit.^[3][6] The reflexive, said of roads and rivers that wind and bend, is the first sense in DEX.^[4][2] The figurative “to complicate, to muddle”, of an idea or a matter, is the other main modern sense.^[4][7]

Timeline

• 1857 – in Polizu's dictionary, the first record.^[3]
• 1887 – întortochem lucrurile “we twist things” in Odobescu's collected writings.^[2][6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To twist, to wind.^[2][1]
2. (reflexive) Of roads, rivers: to wind, to follow a bending, sinuous course.^[4][2]
3. (transitive, figurative) To complicate or tangle a matter or an idea.^[4][7]

Word family

• întortocheat
• întortochetură

Related words

• întort
• întoarce

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1256
3. ^ 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. întortochea
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 556
5. ^ 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. întort
6. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 671
7. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. întortochea