ferice

Forms

ferice m or f or n (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fēlīx, fēlīcem (“fruitful; fortunate, happy”), continuing the accusative.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} The REW records it only in Romanian;^[7][2][8][9] Ciorănescu calls Italian felice and Spanish feliz neologisms, and DELI and Nocentini treat the Italian word as a learned loan.^[7][2][8][9]

The Latin word first meant “fruitful” and then “fortunate”.^[10] It goes back to Proto-Italic *fēlwī- (“suckling, with young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁-l(u)-i-, built on the root *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle”).^[10][1]

The verb ferici is formed on the adjective in Ciorănescu's view; he finds Pușcariu's Vulgar Latin *fēlīcicō unlikely.^[2] Candrea–Densusianu take the older verb ferica from *fēlīcō; the REW lists Aromanian ferica and the Romanian verb as derivatives.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalm 31 (“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven”), where ferice renders “blessed”.^[11] Tiktin's first date is the Psaltirea Scheiană (Ps 31:2), and MDA2's is the Codicele Voronețean, which has „ferice de bărbatul cela ce rabdă năpasti” “blessed is the man who endures trials”.^[12][3][6]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts it is the biblical “blessed”, used as a predicate: Coresi's psalter has „Ferice bărbat ce teame-se de Domnul” “blessed is the man that feareth the Lord”.^[6] The construction ferice de… “happy is…” arose on the model of exclamations such as vai de mine “woe is me” and halal de el; it is often ironic.^[6][3] As an attributive adjective it is almost only poetic, as in Eminescu's „Vom visa un vis ferice”.^[6][13] The noun sense “happiness, luck” survives in the phrase a-l bate fericea “to have luck smile on one”, which Tiktin records as colloquial Wallachian.^[12][13] Ciorănescu calls the word somewhat dated, slowly giving way to its own derivative fericit.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – ferice “blessed” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[11]
• c. 1563–1583 – ferice de bărbatul… in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][6]
• 1570 – ferice in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• 1688 – ferice in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon of Buda has the noun ferice “happiness”.^[15]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (poetic, dated) happy, fericit; invariable.^[16][3][1]
2. In ferice de mine (de tine etc.): how happy I am (you are etc.); ironically, “much good may it do him”.^[16][3]

Adverb

1. Happily: Copiii râdeau ferice în curte.^[13]

Noun

1. (archaic) happiness, fericire, luck, as in a-l bate (pe cineva) fericea, said of a lucky person.^[16][3][17]

Word family

• ferici
• fericire
• fericit
• fericitor
• nefericit
• nefericire

Usage notes

A different ferice is a regional name of the ferigă (fern) in the DA, and the Lexicon of Buda gives it for the bracken Pteris aquilina.^[6][15] Panțu records ferice in Transylvania for the dropwort Spiraea filipendula.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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
3. ^ 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, 895
4. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 52
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 103
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. ferice
7. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3236
8. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
9. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c 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 31:1
12. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ferice
13. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 278
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 10:23
15. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 216
16. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 389
17. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 501
18. ^ 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. 98