deretica

Forms

a deretica (third-person singular present deretică, past participle dereticat, third-person subjunctive deretice; 1st conjugation)^[1] Of its many old variants, the Bucharest Bible has dărăteca: „Și voi dărăteca pre cei fără de lege de pe fața pământului” “and I will clear away the lawless from the face of the earth” (Zephaniah 1:3).^[2][3] Dosoftei has derădica: „Și de pizmași îmi derădică Mișelul suflet” “and free my poor soul from the envious”.^[2][3] MDA2 and DELR list further variants, among them dereteca, derădica, deredica, diretica, dirădica and derdica.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *dēradicō (“to uproot”), formed on rādīx (“root”) like ērādicō (“to uproot”), which gave ridica.^[5][6][1] The sense moved from “to uproot” to “to remove”, then to “to clean, to put in order”.^[5] DER and DELR take the old form ⟨derădica⟩ and the old sense “to remove” as direct evidence for this etymon, which Candrea and Densusianu, the CADE, the DLR, Tiktin and DEX also give.^[5][6] Romance relatives are Italian diradicare (“to eradicate”) and Old Spanish deraigar.^[7][5]

The forms with ⟨t⟩ and ⟨e⟩ and the sense “to put in order” point to a second source: *dīrecticō, from dīrectus (“straight”), with the same development of meaning as drege.^[5] Pușcariu took this as the only etymon, and Tiktin and Scriban preferred it too;^[5][6] DELR allows it as a contamination of the first etymon.^[5][6] The loss of /k/ in /kt/ before the stress has parallels in vătăma from victimō and in arăta.^[5] Others start from a form *dērecticō.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's and Tiktin's first record is a Moldavian document of 1628, which has the variant dărătica in the sense “to see to a matter, to settle, to ease”.^[5][2] MDA2 dates the word from the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), where the DLR quotes the Scheiană's lua with derădicând as the reading of another version.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant “to remove, to make disappear” and “to free from”; the DLR and MDA2 also record a rare old sense “to give away, to donate”.^[3][4] A Iași document of 1630 uses derădica of a town meeting its expenses.^[2] The modern sense, “to tidy up the house”, comes from “to clear away”.^[5][6] MDA2 records a Bucharest sense “to roam the surroundings”.^[4]

Timeline

• 1628 – dărătica in a Moldavian document, the first record.^[5][2]
• 1630 – derădica in a Iași document.^[5][2]
• 1682 – deredica in Dosoftei.^[5]
• 1688 – dărăteca “to clear away” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]
• 1870 – dereticătură “tidiness, order”.^[5]
• 1879 – diriticanie, a cleaning tool.^[5]
• 1924 – dereticat “tidying”.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To tidy up and clean the house.^[8][1]
2. (transitive) To put something in order, to arrange.^[8][4]
3. (obsolete) To remove, to make disappear; to free from.^[4][3]

Word family

• dereticat
• dereticătură

Related words

• ridica
• rădăcină

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. deretica
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deretica
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 650
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. deretica
6. ^ 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. deretica
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2577
8. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 293