drog

Forms

drog n (plural droguri)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French drogue.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DN compares Italian droga.^[6] The French word is of uncertain origin;^[2][1] DELR names Middle Dutch droge (“dry”) as a possible source, from phrases such as droge vate (“dry barrels”), whence goods kept dry.^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is from 1834, in an official bulletin, with the old sense of a substance used to make medicines and dyes.^[2][7] MDA2's record of 1925 also has a rare feminine drogă.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The old sense was a vegetable, mineral or animal raw material for pharmacy, dyeing and chemistry;^[2][7] Tiktin quotes a story about an apothecary spending his best years among such droguri.^[2][7] Colloquially it came to mean any medicine.^[4] The sense “narcotic, addictive substance”, now the main one, is common in the press of the 1970s.^[2][8] A figurative use is something one cannot do without.^[5] The derivatives came from French as well: drogherie “druggist's shop” and droghist “druggist” in the 1850s, and droga “to drug” in 1932.^[2]

Timeline

• 1834 – drog in an official bulletin, the first record.^[2][7]
• 1851 – drogherie “druggist's shop”, from French droguerie.^[2]
• 1853 – droghist “druggist”.^[2]
• 1932 – droga “to drug”.^[2]
• 1967 – antidrog “anti-drug”.^[2]
• 1974 – droguri “narcotics” in the newspaper Scînteia.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A drug, a narcotic: a psychoactive substance that can cause addiction.^[5][4][1]
2. A vegetable, animal or mineral substance used to prepare medicines.^[4][5]
3. (colloquial) A medicine.^[4][5]
4. (figurative) Something one cannot do without.^[5]

Word family

• antidrog
• droga
• drogherie
• droghist
• drogoman

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. drog
3. ^ 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. drog
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 332
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 761
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. drog
7. ^ 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. drog
8. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. drog