ferica

Forms

ferica (third-person singular present ferică, past participle fericat) 1st conjugation^[1] The old texts conjugate it with -ez: Coresi's Psalter has „Și fericează el” “and may he bless him”.^[2] Forms with -rec- are frequent in the 16th century, such as the participle ferecați.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is a verb made from Romanian ferice (“happy”), according to the DA, Ciorănescu, Tiktin, MDA2 and DLRLV.^{[4][5][2][6][7]} ferice continues Latin fēlīx (“fruitful, fortunate”).^[5][6]

Candrea and Densusianu reconstruct Vulgar Latin *fēlīcō (“to make happy”), comparing īnfēlīcō (“to make unhappy”);^[3][8][5][9] CADE follows them.^[3][8][5][9] Wiktionary gives both explanations.^[1] Tiktin explains the forms with -rec- by the influence of fereca;^[2][3] Candrea and Densusianu think them the regular outcome where the /i/ is unstressed.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first form recorded is the participle fericat in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Ps 127:2).^[10] MDA2's first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), with the sense “to call happy”: „fericămu rebdătorii” “we call blessed those who endure”.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb belonged to the old church literature, where it rendered Slavonic forms of Old Church Slavonic ублажити (ublažiti) “to call blessed”.^[4][2] It meant to make happy, to call someone happy, and to glorify: in Coresi's Psalter all the nations „fericează” the Lord.^[4][6] A further sense was “to do good to”: „Fericează, Doamne, dulce voei tale Sionul” “do good, Lord, in your kindness, to Zion”.^[4] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century, from Mardarie's of 1649 on, gloss Slavonic ублажу with ferici.^[11]

The derivative ferici replaced it in the literary language.^[4][5] The DA found it still alive in Indol near Turda, as fereca “to bless”, from a priest's words: Ți-aș fereca lucrul …, dar așa nu ți-l ferec! “I would bless your work …, but like this I won't bless it!”^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the participle fericat in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[10]
• c. 1563–1583 – fericămu “we call blessed” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[6][4]
• 1570 – fericați in Coresi's Psalter (Ps 88:15).^[12]
• 1649 – ferici in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – ferici in the Bucharest Bible (Luke 1:48).^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, church literature) To make happy; to call someone happy or blessed.^[6][1][14]
2. (obsolete) To glorify, to praise.^[6][4]
3. (obsolete) To do good to someone.^[6][4]
4. (regional) To bless.^[6][4]

Related words

• ferice
• ferici
• fericire
• fericit

Usage notes

A noun ferică, a name of the fern, is a separate word, a variant of ferigă.^[4][15]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ferica
3. ^ a b c d e Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. ferica
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. ferica
5. ^ 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. ferice
6. ^ 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, 895
7. ^ Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 129
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. ferica
9. ^ 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
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 127:2
11. ^ a b 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. ferici
12. ^ 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 88:15
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luca 1:48
14. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ferica
15. ^ Panțu, Zach. C. (1929), Plantele cunoscute de poporul român. Vocabular botanic cuprinzând numirile române, franceze, germane și științifice, 2nd ed., București: Editura Casei Școalelor, p. 97