fermecător

Forms

fermecător m or n (feminine singular fermecătoare, masculine plural fermecători, feminine/neuter plural fermecătoare)^[1] The popular variant fărmăcător appears in Creangă: „vasiliseni cei cu ochi fărmăcători” “queens with bewitching eyes”.^[2][3][4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 writes Fermecatóriu and glosses it with Latin words for a conjurer or sorceress.^[5]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian fermeca + -ător, the verb “to bewitch, charm” with the agent suffix.^{[6][4][7][1][8]} Tiktin also cites a form fărmăcitoriu in Dosoftei, which the DA explains from an unrecorded verb.^[7]

The verb fermeca is formed on farmec (“charm, spell”);^[6][1] Wiktionary also allows a Vulgar Latin *pharmacō, and both go back to Latin pharmacum (“drug, potion”).^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, at Exodus 22:18, where the word means “sorcerer, witch”.^[7][6] The Bible of 1810 renders the same verse „Pre fermecători să nu-i lăsați să trăiască” “do not let sorcerers live”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The old sense is the person who works spells and, as an adjective, “magic”, as in Pravila's fărmecătoare beside the descântătoare “women who chant charms”.^[2][6] It lives on in folk tales and beliefs: Ispirescu has a fermecător meșter “skilled sorcerer”, and a folklore journal notes that men are less often fermecători than women.^[2][3]

As the verb fermeca came to mean “to enchant, delight”, the adjective followed: Vlahuță's priveliști fermecătoare are “enchanting views”, and this is now the main sense, close to încântător.^[3][4][2]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – fermecători “sorcerers” in the Palia de la Orăștie, Exodus 22:18.^[7][6]
• 1801 – Fermecatóriu in Klein's dictionary.^[5]
• 1810 – the same verse in the Bible of 1810.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. charming, pleasing, enchanting; încântător, desfătător.^[4][6][1]
2. (in folk tales and beliefs, often as a noun) Working spells; a sorcerer or witch, a vrăjitor.^[4][6][3]
3. (obsolete) magic.^[6]

Related words

• fermeca
• farmec
• fermecat

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. fermecător
3. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 279
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 389
5. ^ 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
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, 896
7. ^ 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. fermecător
8. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org