fericire

Forms

fericire f (plural fericiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ferici + -re: the long infinitive of ferici “to make happy”, used as a noun.^[2][3][1] The verb is formed on ferice “happy”,^[2][1] which Romanian kept from Latin fēlīx (“fruitful; fortunate”), through its accusative fēlīcem.^[4][5] Ciorănescu notes that Italian felice and Spanish feliz are learned words, unlike the Romanian adjective.^[4]

The Latin adjective first meant “fruitful”, and goes back to Proto-Italic *fēl(w)ī- (“suckling, with young”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁(y)- (“to suckle”).^[6][1] The DA explains the noun as an infinitive that became an abstract noun: it lost the sense of a verbal action and took over the meaning of the older abstract fericie, which it replaced.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649, where fericire renders Old Church Slavonic блаженство (blaženstvo, “blessedness”); the later 17th-century lexicons use it for the same word.^[8][3] The sense was religious: a liturgy printed in 1702 speaks of „împărăția cerurilor, carea este fericirea cea adevărată” “the kingdom of heaven, which is the true happiness”.^[3][7] MDA2 gives this liturgy as its first record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From the “blessedness” of the church texts the word passed to earthly happiness: Cantemir's Divan has „lumească nărocire fericire n-are”, which Tiktin reads as “worldly fortune brings no bliss”.^[3] Tiktin distinguishes it from noroc: fericire is the happiness one feels, noroc the luck that befalls one.^[3] The 19th-century dictionaries give both “happiness” and “beatitude”: Costinescu glosses it with French bonheur and félicité, and its plural fericirile names the eight Beatitudes of Matthew's Gospel.^[9][10]

A second sense, “a lucky event”, is recorded by Șăineanu and Scriban.^[11][12] MDA2 adds a figurative one, the person or thing that brings happiness, as in the folk line „Maică, fericirea mea” “Mother, my happiness”.^[2][13] Its old synonyms ferice, fericie and fericință are now obsolete.^[2]

Timeline

• 1563 – the verb ferici in Coresi's Praxiu.^[14]
• 1649 – fericire in Mardarie's lexicon, the first record of the noun.^[8][3]
• 1688 – fericirea in the Bucharest Bible (Romans 4:6).^[15]
• 1702 – „fericirea cea adevărată” “the true happiness” in a printed liturgy.^[3][2]
• 1870 – Costinescu records the plural fericirile for the Beatitudes.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. happiness, bliss: a state of deep and complete contentment.^[16][2][1]
2. din fericire: fortunately, through a lucky turn of events: Din fericire, trenul a întârziat.^[16][2]
3. A lucky event, a piece of good luck.^[11][17][1]
4. (figurative) The person or thing that makes someone happy.^[2][13]

Word family

• nefericire

Related words

• ferici
• ferice
• fericit
• Latin fēlīx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fericire
4. ^ a b 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
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3236
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ a b 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. fericire
8. ^ 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. fericire
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 1, 432
10. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 262
11. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 248
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 502
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 278
14. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ferici
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Rom 4:6
16. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 389
17. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. fericire