Etymology and origin of the Romanian word șterc
șterc1 filth, mote
From the same root · șterc1
Forms
șterc n (plural ștercuri)[1]
Etymology
The word for filth is inherited from Latin stercus (“dung, excrement”).[2][3][4][5][1] Ciorănescu cites Cihac, Pușcariu, Tiktin and the REW for this etymology.[2] It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian sterc.[6] Its Romance cognates include Italian sterco, Spanish estiércol and Portuguese esterco.[2][6]
Earliest recorded meaning
The first record is from about 1550, in a text that Hasdeu published in his Cuvente den bătrâni: the gospel saying about seeing the mote in another's eye and not the beam in one's own, „Nu vede ștercul în ochiul altuia, ce vede bârna den ochiul tău” “he does not see the speck in the other's eye, but sees the beam in your eye”.[3][5][4] The word stood there for the speck of chaff or splinter of the gospel (Matthew 7:3).[5]
Semantic evolution
From the Latin sense “dung”, the Romanian word came to mean “refuse, rubbish” and, in the gospel saying, the speck or splinter in the eye.[5][3] Coresi's Tetraevanghel has the saying, and it became proverbial: Nicolae Costin writes that a prince saw the mote in the eye of the Turks but not the beam in his own.[5][3] Varlaam used it figuratively, “the filth of sins” (ștercuri de păcate) that blinds the mind.[5][3] Ciorănescu dates the word to the 16th–18th centuries and adds the sense “scab”; it is now obsolete.[2][1]
Timeline
Meanings
Noun
- (obsolete) filth, refuse; impurity.[4][3][1]
- (obsolete) A speck of chaff or a splinter, as in the gospel saying about the mote in the eye.[5][7]
- (obsolete) A scab or skin disease such as mange.[2][1]
Word family
- ștercumă
șterc2 starch
- Confidence
- Established
- Formation
- Borrowing
- First attested
- 1825 Lexicon de la Buda
- Borrowed from
- German Stärke
- Ultimate origin
- German Stärke
Forms
șterc n (plural ștercuri)[8][9]
Etymology
The word for starch is borrowed from German Stärke (“starch”).[8][9][4] It belongs to Transylvania and parts of Moldavia.[8][9][4] The German word is formed from stark (“strong”) with the suffix -e.[1]
Earliest recorded meaning
The first record is the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825, which glosses ștercu as a means of stiffening shirts.[10][9][4]
Timeline
- 1825 – ștercu “starch” in the Lexicon de la Buda.[10][9][4]
- 1886 – the variant sterc in Barcianu's dictionary.[8]
Meanings
Noun
Usage notes
Both words have the plural ștercuri.[3][8] The starch word also has the regional forms sterc and ștearc.[8][4] MDA2 and the DLR also list șterc as a variant of șterț.[4][11]
References
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ a b c d e 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. șterc
- ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șterc
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1127
- ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. șterc 1
- ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8245
- ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1287
- ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șterc 2
- ^ 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. șterc 2
- ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 670
- ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șterc 3
Related etymologies
Cite this entry
“Șterc.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/%C8%99terc. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.
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