aburca

Forms

aburca (third-person singular present aburcă, past participle aburcat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain: DEX and NODEX call it of unknown origin and compare urca.^[2][3] DELR, which also leaves it open, gives two Latin explanations.^[4]

The first, Pușcariu's, accepted by the DA, CADE and the REW, makes it inherited from Vulgar Latin *arboricō (“to climb a tree”), formed on arbor (“tree”) with the verbal suffix -icō.^[4][5][6][7] The word would have lost its first /r/ by dissimilation and its unstressed /e/, and the first sense would have been “to climb into a tree”; the DA adds that the simple verb later influenced its form.^[4][5]

The second starts from *aboricō, formed with ab- on the base of orior (“to rise”) that survives in the simple verb: Tiktin's tentative division ⟨ab-urca⟩, followed by Ciorănescu (as a possibility) and by Boerescu in 2017.^[4][8] Ciorănescu rejects the tree explanation because its image is odd and because it ignores its plain identity with the simple verb, which needs one origin for both.^[7] He grants that the survival of the intervocalic /b/ is very hard to explain, and suggests either a /b/ added before the vowel, as in a form *boricō, or a compound with ad-;^[7][4] DELR finds these hard to accept, and compares the /v/ kept before /u/ in avui.^[7][4] Wiktionary gives the second explanation as probable.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant burica in the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825; the form aburca follows in Asachi in 1836.^[4] Tiktin cites Sbiera's tales of 1856.^[8] The best-known passages are Creangă's: „începe a se aburca pe cireș în sus” “he starts to clamber up the cherry tree”.^[8][5]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes it as a word of Moldavia and Bukovina.^[5] The reflexive “to climb, clamber up” and the transitive “to lift, heave up” are both in Creangă: Oșlobanu lifts the logs with some effort and swings them onto his back, „săltându-le și aburcându-le cam anevoie”.^[8][9] In Transylvania the transitive verb also means “to help someone climb into a tree”.^[5] Sadoveanu used it for mounting a horse.^[10] In south-eastern Transylvania a form with another prefix, îmbârca “to help someone climb up”, is recorded from 1906; the DA sees the influence of cârcă “back” in it.^[4]

Timeline

• 1825 – the variant burica in the Lexicon de la Buda, the first record.^[4]
• 1836 – aburca in Asachi.^[4]
• 1856 – in Sbiera's tales.^[8]
• 1892 – in Creangă's Amintiri din copilărie.^[11]
• 1906 – îmbârca “to help someone climb up”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive, popular) To climb, to clamber up.^[2][11][1]
2. (transitive) To lift with effort from the ground, to heave onto one's back.^[2][3][8]
3. (transitive, regional) To help someone climb up.^[5][10]

Word family

• îmbârca

Related words

• urca

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 4
3. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. aburca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. aburca
5. ^ 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. aburca
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. aburca
7. ^ 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. aburca
8. ^ 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. aburcá
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 3
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 7
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 5