fecior

Forms

fecior m (plural feciori)^[1]

Etymology

It is most often explained as inherited from Vulgar Latin *fētiolus (“little child”), a diminutive of Latin fētus (“offspring”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} Ciorănescu cites this view but thinks it more likely that the word was formed in Romanian from făt, through ⟨*fetcior⟩ or ⟨*fetșor⟩;^[8][1] DEX gives both explanations, the second as from Romanian făt + -ior.^[9][2] The Latin adjective first meant “having given birth”, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-to- (“having given birth”), from the root “to suckle”.^[8][1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian ficior, Megleno-Romanian fițor and Istro-Romanian fețor.^{[9][10][11][12]} Its feminine, fecioară “virgin”, is taken by Pușcariu and the DA from Vulgar Latin *fētiola.^[9] Romanian lent the word to Albanian, Bulgarian and Hungarian;^[6][1] Hungarian ficsúr (“dandy”) comes from the regional form ficior.^[9][6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears first in personal names: Tiktin cites Ficur from 1202/3 and a Marco Fecior from about 1348, and the onomastic dictionary has Ficior in a Transylvanian document of 1202, in the Latin–Hungarian spelling Fichur.^[4][13] In Romanian texts it is common in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where feciorii are the sons or children of the psalms.^[14] MDA2 dates its first record to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense is “child”, a son or daughter in relation to the parents: Tiktin quotes a 16th-century manuscript of Leviticus on eating „carnea feciorilor voștri și a featelor voastre” “the flesh of your sons and your daughters”.^[4][3] From “son” the word passed to “boy, lad” and then to “young unmarried man”, the sense of folk songs where girls dance with feciori.^[4][2] It also came to mean a male servant in a boyar's house, a valet;^[15] fecior boieresc was an estate overseer.^[2][3][15] In Transylvanian weddings the fecior de împărat was the bridegroom's companion.^[4]

Phrases name a child's birth or upbringing: fecior de lele “bastard”, fecior din flori “child born out of wedlock” and fecior de bani gata “rich man's spendthrift son”.^[3][4] The feminine fecioară narrowed to “virgin”.^[9]

Timeline

• 1202 – Ficior (spelled Fichur), a personal name in a Transylvanian document.^[13][4]
• c. 1348 – the personal name Marco Fecior.^[4]
• early 16th century – feciori, feciorii in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[14]
• c. 1563–1583 – the Codicele Voronețean, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[16]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. A son; a boy, seen in relation to his parents.^[2][18]
2. A young unmarried man; a lad.^[2][3]
3. (dated) A servant in a boyar's house; a valet or footman.^[2][3]

Word family

• fecioară
• feciorandru
• feciorelnic
• fecioresc
• feciorește
• feciorie
• feciorime
• desfeciori

Related words

• făt
• Aromanian ficior

Usage notes

The regional variant ficior is the usual form in the east.^[2][15] Fecior de bani gata is “a rich man's son who squanders his money”.^[2][3]

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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 386
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 890
4. ^ 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. fecior
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 51
6. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3273
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ 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. fecior
10. ^ 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, p. 1, 85
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 127
12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
13. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. fecior
14. ^ 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 28:1
15. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 498
16. ^ 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. fecior
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 16:15
18. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. fecior