drac

Forms

drac m (plural draci, feminine equivalent drăcoaică)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dracō (“dragon, large snake”), which is from Ancient Greek δράκων (drákōn, “serpent, dragon”).^[2][3][4][1] Romanian continues the Latin nominative, as in cap, om and șarpe, perhaps through a form *dracus.^[3] The nominative also survives in Occitan drac, Catalan drac and the Bergamo dialect's drag, and Albanian borrowed it as dreq.^[2] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian drac, Megleno-Romanian drac and Istro-Romanian drocu.^[3][5][6][7]

The sense “devil” goes back to Christian Latin, in which the word came to mean a demon.^[3] DELR explains it by the Christian picture of the Devil as a serpent; it is also found in some dialects of southern and northern France and in the Albanian loan.^[2][2] Beekes thinks the Greek noun is probably related to δέρκομαι (dérkomai, “to look at”), the dragon being named after its paralysing gaze.^[8] Romanian dragon is a doublet, borrowed from French.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's earliest date is a charter of 1440 published in the DRH D series.^[9] DELR and MDA2 take the first record from the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century).^[2][4][10] Around 1600 the word translated both Greek δαίμων (daímōn) (Slavonic бѣсъ) and διάβολος (diábolos) (Slavonic врагъ); the Codicele Voronețean has „vrăjmașul vostru, dracul, ca un leu răcnind îmblă” “your adversary the devil walketh about as a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8).^[9] Coresi also used drac for Slavonic врагъ where it means “enemy”: „când toarnă-se dracul mieu înapoi” “when my enemy turns back” (Psalm 9:4).^[9]

Semantic evolution

Later the Greek diábolos was rendered by diavol, and drac kept the sense “demon, devil”.^[9] Applied to people, the word means a wicked person, but also a lively, mischievous child or a clever fellow;^[9][11] Coșbuc's „ce mai drac frumos de noră” is “what a lovely devil of a daughter-in-law”.^[9][11] Many phrases use it: in the plural draci means anger (a-l apuca dracii “to fly into a rage”), al dracului means “terribly, extremely”, and la dracu “very far away”.^[2]

Dracul was also a byname: Vlad, son of Mircea I, was called Dracul, and Drăculea was the byname of Vlad Țepeș.^[12] Etymonline connects the byname of Vlad's father with the Order of the Dragon and gives it as the source of the English name Dracula.^[13]

Timeline

• 1440 – a charter in the DRH D series, the first record Tiktin gives.^[9]
• c. 1500-1520 – dracul and dracii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][10]
• 1559-1560 – the adjective drăcesc “devilish” in the Codex Bratul.^[2]
• 1570 – dracul “the enemy” in Coresi's psalter.^[9][14]
• 1581 – drăcie “devilry” and îndrăci “to madden, possess with devils” in Coresi.^[2]
• 1592-1604 – drăcui “to curse by the Devil”.^[2]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic бѣсъ and демонъ with dracul.^[15]
• 1691-1697 – drăcoaică “she-devil”.^[2]
• 1844 – drăcușor “little devil”, in Negruzzi.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The devil, a demon: an imaginary male being that embodies the spirit of evil.^[11] A fi dracul gol “to be wicked” or “to be very clever and mischievous”;^[11] a avea draci “to be in a bad temper”;^[11] e tot un drac “it's all the same”.^[11]
2. (figurative) A wicked, cruel person; also a lively, clever, mischievous person.^[11]
3. Drac-de-mare: a greyish-red sea fish whose head and body are flattened from side to side.^[11]

Word family

• drăcesc
• drăcește
• drăcie
• drăcărie
• drăcime
• drăcoaică
• drăcos
• drăcui
• drăcușor
• drăculeț
• îndrăci

Related words

• diavol
• dragon
• Aromanian drac
• Latin dracō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. drac
3. ^ a b c d 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. drac
4. ^ 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, 750
5. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 413
6. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 233
7. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 210
8. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. drac
10. ^ 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 12:3
11. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 329
12. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. drac
13. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ 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 9:3
15. ^ 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. dracul