dădacă

Forms

dădacă f (plural dădace)^[1] The variant dadacă is the eastern form, used by Negruzzi: „Astfel vorbea Zoe cătră Sanda, dadaca și singura sa prietenă” “thus Zoe spoke to Sanda, her nanny and only friend”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek νταντά (dadá, “nanny”), with Ottoman Turkish dadı (“nanny”) as a second source, and the suffix -că of terms of address such as neneacă, babacă and duducă, and perhaps under the influence of doică.^[5][6][7] The Greek word is itself from Turkish.^[5][8] The DA, the DLR and Tiktin name only the Turkish word, and the DA explains the ending as an endearing suffix;^[2][9][3][1] Wiktionary names only the Greek word.^[2][9][3][1] The Turkish word comes from Persian دادو (dādū, “old servant, tutor”).^[10][11][12]

Ciorănescu derives it instead from the Romanian dadă “elder sister, aunt”, itself from Turkish.^[13][5] Cihac (1879) compared Slavic words for grandfather and uncle.^[14][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1785, in the Romanian Erotocrit, in the sense of a woman who brings up small children.^[5] Tiktin has dadacă from 1793, and MDA2 dates the word to I. Golescu's Condica of about 1832.^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

The word belonged to the households of the boyars and the well-to-do of Wallachia and Moldavia, and the DLRLC (1955) marks it as going out of use.^[15] Later dictionaries define it simply as a woman hired to bring up small children.^[6] The verb dădăci “to nurse a child; to fuss over someone” is recorded from 1845 and dădăceală “fussing” from 1862.^[5] Phrases use the word for excessive care: a face pe dădaca “to play the nanny”, a-i trebui dădacă “to be unable to behave”, a-i sta dădacă pe cap “to nag someone”.^[9][2] Moldavian dadaie (1874) has another suffix.^[5]

Timeline

• 1785 – first record, in the Erotocrit.^[5]
• 1793 – dadacă in Predetici.^[3]
• c. 1832 – in I. Golescu's Condica.^[7]
• 1845 – the verb dădăci in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[5]
• 1862 – dădăceală in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[5]
• 1874 – Moldavian dadaie in I. Negruzzi.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. A nanny: a woman employed to bring up and look after small children; bonă, guvernantă.^[6][7][1]
2. A face pe dădaca: to take on the role of looking after or guiding someone, especially a child; to fuss over someone.^[6][7]

Word family

• dadaie
• dădăceală
• dădăci

Related words

• dadă
• doică

Usage notes

A-i sta (cuiva) dădacă pe cap means “to nag someone”.^[9][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. dădacă
3. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dadácă
4. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 390
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. dădacă
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 272
7. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 603
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 990
9. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dădacă
10. ^ Nişanyan, Sevan, Nişanyan Sözlük: Çağdaş Türkçenin Etimolojisi (online edition)
11. ^ Eren, Hasan (1999), Türk Dilinin Etimolojik Sözlüğü, Ankara: Bizim Büro, p. 102
12. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences
13. ^ 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. dadă
14. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 89
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 16
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. dădacă