arșinic

Forms

arșinic m (plural arșinici)^[1] The DA and Hasdeu record the plant name also as arsenic (masculine) or arsenică (feminine), and as arsinic: „Foaie verde de-arsinic” “green leaf of arsinic” in a folk song.^[2][3]

Etymology

The DEX, the DA and MDA2 call its origin unknown.^[4][2][5] Scriban derived it from Romanian urșinic (“velvet, a costly silk fabric”), and Wiktionary follows him.^[6][1] The fabric name has been compared with Italian oloserico and Ancient Greek ὁλοσηρικός (holosērikós, “all of silk”).^[7][8] Wiktionary derives it from Vulgar Latin *holoserinicus (“silken”), based on Latin holosēricus (“all of silk”), and thinks a substrate origin less likely.^[1][9] In Maramureș the same word is also a name of the plant, and the DLR compares the two names.^[10][8]

Hasdeu rejected a link with the personal name Arsenie and proposed a Latin name of a red headdress worn by women, but this is his own conjecture.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Hasdeu's dictionary gives arsenic and arsenică in Suceava and Neamț and also in Transylvania, and notes the form arșinic in a botanical work by Brândză, which he took for a misprint for arsinic.^[3] MDA2's date 1736 for the word is a column number of Hasdeu's dictionary, not a year.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The name belongs to the Maltese cross (Lychnis chalcedonica), an ornamental plant from the East grown in gardens for its red flowers.^[4][6] MDA2 gives regional synonyms such as cruciulițe, floare de stea and urșinic, and records the feminine arsenică for a phlox (Phlox paniculata).^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Maltese cross (Lychnis chalcedonica), an ornamental herbaceous plant with red, white or variegated flowers.^[4][5][1]

Related words

• urșinic

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. arsenic
3. ^ a b c Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. arsenică
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 64
5. ^ 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, 103
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 125
7. ^ 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. urșinic
8. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urșinic
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. holosericus
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1395