aluneca

Forms

aluneca (third-person singular present alunecă, past participle alunecat, third-person subjunctive alunece) 1st conjugation^[1] The variant luneca is as old as the main form and still in use.^[2][3] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki writes lunrecare, and MDA2 lists an old lureca.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lūbricō (“to make slippery; to be slippery”), from lūbricus (“slippery”).^[2][4][5][1] The older form lureca has the expected /r/, as Megleno-Romanian lurec does;^[3][2][6] DELR explains the /n/ of the Romanian form as a dissimilation of two liquids, after Avram.^[2][6] Wiktionary compares the loss of /b/ before /r/ in faur and fereca.^[1] Aromanian has alunic and arunic.^[2][6]

Ciorănescu finds the Latin etymology uncertain, because the /n/ is not fully explained, but he also rejects Meyer's Vulgar Latin *lūnicō from lūna (“moon”).^[6] DEX 2009 analyses the word as luneca with the prefix a-.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is of the early 16th century: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has the verbal noun lunrecare and the adjective lunrecos “slippery”.^[2] Coresi's Omiliar of 1581 has luneca.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The physical senses, to slip and fall and to glide smoothly, are the core.^[2][7] Old Romanian also used the reflexive a se luneca for “to sin, to go astray”, which survives in the figurative sense “to err, to give in to temptation”.^[2][3][8] In modern technical language it is used of two bodies that move along each other without rolling.^[7]

DELR dates the derivatives: alunecos “slippery” from the early 16th century, alunecător from 1643, alunecuș from 1673 and alunecătură from 1688.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – lunrecare and lunrecos in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first records.^[2]
• 1570 – lunecare in Coresi's psalter.^[9]
• 1581 – luneca in Coresi's Omiliar.^[8]
• 1643 – lunecător in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2]
• 1673 – lunicuș in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – alunecătură in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To slip: to lose one's balance on a smooth surface, and to fall.^[7][1]
2. To glide, to move smoothly without meeting resistance; of two bodies in contact, to move along each other without rolling; to slip in or through.^[7][1]
3. Of objects, to slide from where they were placed: cartea i-a alunecat din mână “the book slipped from her hand”.^[10]
4. (figurative) To go astray, to give in to temptation; to err.^[7]

Word family

• alunecător
• alunecătură
• alunecos
• alunecuș
• alunecare

Related words

• luneca
• Aromanian alunic

Usage notes

A aluneca printre degete means “to slip through one's fingers”, to be hard to catch or to escape control.^[11][10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. aluneca
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1405
4. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 30
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 47
6. ^ 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. luneca
7. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 32
8. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. luneca
9. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 34:7
10. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 23
11. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. aluneca