arc

Forms

arc n (plural arcuri)^[1] The plural is arcuri;^[2][3] arce is used for the arc of a curve, and old texts use it for bows as well.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin arcus (“bow, arch”), a word continued across the Romance languages.^[4][3][5][1] The Latin word goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₂erkʷo- (“bow, arrow”).^[1] De Vaan compares Germanic words for “arrow”, such as Old English earh, and Proto-Slavic *orkyta (“willow”).^[6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian arcu and Megleno-Romanian arc, the bow of the cotton carder.^[4][7][8] Its Romance relatives include Italian arco, Occitan arc, Spanish arco and Portuguese arco.^[3][5] The senses of mathematics, architecture and engineering came from French arc.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520), where the forms arcul and arcele name the weapon.^[4][9] Coresi's Psalter has „că, adecă, păcătoșii întinseră arcul” “for lo, the sinners have bent the bow”.^[10][11] MDA2 cites the same psalter through Hasdeu.^[12]

Semantic evolution

The bow was the first sense, and anything bent in its shape could be called arc: arcul sprâncenei “the arch of the eyebrow”.^[2][4] The vault of a building, the triumphal arch, the arc of a circle and the spring of a carriage or a lock followed, partly after French usage.^[4][13][2] In Oltenia and the Banat the word is also the bow of a stringed instrument, and Tiktin records it as the crown set on the heads of bride and groom at a wedding.^[14]

Tiktin calls the phrase a avea mai multe coarde la arc “to have more strings to one's bow” a Gallicism.^[14] Physics and physiology added the electric arc and the reflex arc.^[2] In the press of the 1990s arcul guvernamental was the group of parties supporting the government.^[15]

Old derivatives are arcaș “archer” (c. 1650), arcar “bowyer” (c. 1690) and arcuș “bow of a violin” (1691–1697).^[4][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – arcul and arcele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[4][9]
• 1570 – arc in Coresi's Psalter.^[16]
• 1649 – arcul in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[17]
• c. 1650 – arcaș “archer”.^[4]
• c. 1690 – arcar “maker or seller of bows”.^[4]
• 1691–1697 – arcuș “bow of a stringed instrument” and arcui “to bend”, in Teodor Corbea's dictionary.^[4]
• 1715 – arcărie, the quarter of the bow makers.^[4]
• 1817 – arcadă “arcade”, from French.^[4]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda gives the bow for arrows and the bow of a fiddle.^[18]
• 1997 – arcul majoritar, a coalition of parties, in the press.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A bow for shooting arrows: a flexible rod, slightly bent, held by a string fixed to its ends; anything with this shape: arcul sprâncenei “the arch of the eyebrow”.^[2][1]
2. (geometry, plural arce) An arc of a circle or of a curve.^[2][1]
3. (architecture) An arch;^[2][1] arc de triumf “triumphal arch”.^[2][1]
4. An elastic metal part of a machine that returns to its shape, a spring: arcurile mașinii “the springs of the car”.^[2][13]
5. Arc electric or arc voltaic: an electric arc.^[2]
6. (physiology) Arc reflex: the reflex arc.^[2]
7. (politics) A coalition of parties: arc guvernamental, arc majoritar.^[15]
8. (regional) The bow of a stringed instrument.^[14][4]

Word family

• arcar
• arcaș
• arcășie
• arcos
• arcui
• arcuit
• arcuș

Related words

• Aromanian arcu
• Latin arcus

Usage notes

A avea mai multe coarde la arc means to have several means of reaching one's goal.^[12][14] Parcă ar fi pe arcuri “as if on springs” is said of a lithe, nimble person.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 58
3. ^ 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. arc
4. ^ 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. arc
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 618
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 136
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 26
9. ^ a b 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 43:8
10. ^ 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. arc
11. ^ 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 10:2
12. ^ 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, 90
13. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 117
14. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. arc
15. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. arc
16. ^ 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 17:37
17. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. arcul
18. ^ 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. 29