ferigă

Forms

ferigă f (plural ferigi)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin filix (“fern, bracken”), continued from its accusative filicem.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu cites Pușcariu, Candrea–Densusianu and the DAR for this etymology.^[2] The Latin noun names any large fern; de Vaan connects it with Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“henbane”), whose feathered stems resemble fern leaves.^[5][6]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian fearicã.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian felce and Sardinian filige.^[9][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a place name: Tiktin cites Ferech from a document of 1482.^[3] The common noun is listed as Feriga in Klein's dictionary of 1801.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The word has always named ferns in general, several genera of the polypody family that grow in damp, shady woods.^[3][4][11] Regionally it passed to plants with similarly divided leaves: in Muntenia and Transylvania Tiktin records it for tansy, and ferigă albă and the derivative firigea name dropwort.^[3][2] Folk medicine used the root: a recipe Tiktin quotes gives fern root against a rupture, and Panțu notes that the rhizome of the male fern was used against worms.^[3][12]

Romanian lent the word to Polish ferecina, as Candrea noted.^[2] The Aromanian phrase om dit fearicã “a man from the ferns” means a thief, one who hides in the undergrowth.^[7]

Timeline

• 1482 – the place name Ferech, the first record.^[3]
• 1801 – Feriga in Klein's dictionary.^[10]
• 1939 – Scriban describes the ferns as the plants that formed much of the coal deposits.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. fern: any of several cryptogamous plants with large, toothed fronds bearing spore cases on their underside.^[11][13][1]
2. (regional) dropwort (Filipendula vulgaris).^[2][3]
3. (regional) tansy (Tanacetum).^[3]

Word family

• firigea

Related words

• Aromanian fearicã
• Latin filix

Usage notes

The stress falls on either syllable, ferígă or férigă.^[11] Regional and older variants include feregă, ferece, ferice, ferică and feligă; diminutives are fereguță and ferecuță.^[3][2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ferigă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ferigă
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 895
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 454
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 450
9. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 502
10. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 360
11. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 389
12. ^ 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
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ferigă