arunca

Forms

arunca (third-person singular present aruncă, past participle aruncat, third-person subjunctive arunce) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain.^[2] DELR thinks it probably inherited from Vulgar Latin *arruncāre, a form of ēruncō (“to weed out”) with the prefix changed, as in the Tuscan arroncare and the Abruzzese arrongá “to weed”.^[2] The sense would have run from “to pull out” through “to remove” to “to throw”.^[2] A verb Medieval Latin arruncare (“to turn away, uproot”) is glossed in a medieval glossary and in Papias's dictionary of the 11th century.^[2]

Ciorănescu derives it from runcō (“to weed”) or from the prefixed verb, which the REW, Pascu and DEX give.^[3][4][5] DELR finds the prefixed verb hard to square with the ⟨rr⟩ of the oldest texts.^[2] The Lexicon of Buda, Pușcariu, the DA and MDA2 take it instead from āverruncō (“to avert an evil”), a word of the pagan religious language: its sense would have run from “to turn away an evil” to “to throw away”.^[6][7][2] Ciorănescu doubts that this soothsayers' word reached popular speech, the REW finds it a poorer fit in meaning, and DELR notes that no other Romance language kept it.^[3][4][2]

It survives in Aromanian aruc and Megleno-Romanian runc.^{[3][2][8][9][10]} Ciorănescu compares the Romanian noun runc.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500, in the spelling arruncá.^[2] MDA2 cites the Codicele Voronețean of about 1563–1583,^[7] and Tiktin locates the passage at 1 Peter 5:7.^[11] MDA2's first sense is the old “to turn away an evil from someone”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old texts use the verb with abstract objects: a arunca grija “to entrust one's cares” to someone, a arunca ură, pizmă “to direct hatred, envy” against someone, a arunca năpasta “to wrong someone”.^[7][11] It also meant to lay a tax on someone and to cast a spell.^[7][3] The modern core sense is “to throw, hurl”, with a arunca în aer “to blow up” and a arunca o privire “to cast a glance”.^[5] Ciorănescu notes that in Moldavia it competes with azvârli.^[3]

Derivatives include aruncătură “a throw”, recorded in Coresi's Gospel book of 1560–1561, aruncător “thrower”, about 1650, and aruncat (1796).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – arruncá in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2]
• 1560–1561 – aruncătură in Coresi's Gospel book.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean (1 Peter 5:7).^[7][11]
• 1589 – aruncară in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 21:19).^[12]
• c. 1650 – aruncător “thrower”.^[2]
• 1796 – the noun aruncat in Budai-Deleanu's Țiganiada.^[2]
• 1857 – rearunca “to throw again”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To throw, hurl, send something some distance with a sharp movement;^[5][7][1] a arunca în aer “to blow up”;^[5][7][1] a arunca o privire “to cast a glance”.^[5][7][1]
2. Reflexive: to rush, pounce, leap.^[5][3]
3. To scatter seed in sowing.^[5][11]
4. To throw away, discard something bad or useless.^[5][7]
5. To cast light or shadow.^[5]
6. (figurative) To put someone in a bad situation: a arunca în închisoare “to throw into prison”.^[5]
7. Reflexive, popular: a se arunca în partea cuiva “to take after someone in the family”.^[5][3]

Word family

• aruncat
• aruncătură
• aruncător
• aruncare
• rearunca

Related words

• runc
• azvârli
• Aromanian aruc

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o 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. arunca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. arunca
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2908
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 65
6. ^ 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. arunca
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 105
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 252
11. ^ 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. arunca
12. ^ 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 21:19