ambuscadă

Forms

ambuscadă f (plural ambuscade)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French embuscade (“ambush”), as DER, DELR, DEX and Wiktionary give it.^[2][3][4][1] The French word is from Italian imboscata, from imboscare (“to lie in wait in order to attack by surprise”), from bosco (“wood, forest”), which goes back to Lombardic *bosk; compare German Busch and English bush.^[3][1] Scriban compares Spanish emboscada.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1863, in Dimitrie Bolintineanu, with the military sense of an attack by surprise.^[3] MDA2 cites only the DEX of 1998.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word names both the surprise attack and the hidden place it is made from; the DLRM describes the action as prepared in advance and carried out by small units, often from a wood.^[7][8] Marcu adds a familiar sense “trap”.^[9] DELR records the verb ambusca “to place in ambush”, from French embusquer, in 1906; in colloquial use its participle ambuscat was said of a man given a safe post in wartime.^[3]

Timeline

• 1863 – ambuscadă in Bolintineanu, the first record.^[3]
• 1906 – the verb ambusca, from French.^[3]
• 2007 – a back-formed verb ambusca “to catch in an ambush”, in the press.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ambush: a combat action in which the enemy is attacked by surprise: Patrula a căzut într-o ambuscadă.^[4][2]
2. A place prepared and held by a military unit in order to attack the enemy by surprise.^[4][6]
3. (colloquial) A trap.^[9]

Related words

• ambusca
• French embuscade

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b 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. ambuscadă
3. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ambuscadă
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 34
5. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 94
6. ^ 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, 51
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual