fermeca

Forms

fermeca (third-person singular present farmecă, past participle fermecat) 1st conjugation^[1] Older texts have fărmeca and fărmăca, as in „Preoții ce vor îmbla cu farmeci sau vor ști fărmăca” “priests who go about with spells or know how to bewitch”.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian farmec + -a, from the noun meaning “spell, charm”: DEX, MDA2 and Ciorănescu all treat it as a derivative of the noun.^[3][4][5] Tiktin, Candrea–Densusianu and several older dictionaries take it instead straight from Vulgar Latin *pharmacō, a Latin verb “to give a poisoned or magic potion”, and the DA and Wiktionary leave both explanations open.^{[2][6][7][8][9][1]} The REW lists the verb beside the noun under the same Latin word.^[10][10]

The noun farmec is pharmacum (“drug, poison, magic potion”), from Ancient Greek φάρμακον (phármakon, “drug, charm”);^[5][1] Ciorănescu also allows a direct Greek source.^[5][1] The variants fărămeca and fărâmeca owe their extra vowel to fărâma, according to Tiktin.^[2] In Maramureș the form formăca has a rounded vowel, which Candrea–Densusianu attribute to the labial consonant before it.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in Coresi's Praxiu of 1563.^[2] MDA2 dates the verb to Moxa's chronicle of 1620, which has the form fărmăca for a monk who showed the emperor visions by means of spells.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb first meant to bewitch someone with spells, originally with magic potions, Tiktin notes.^[2] The DA records a folk distinction: one who farmecă turns to the Virgin Mary and works with dew, water and fragrant flowers at sunrise, usually to make someone beautiful or loved, while vrăji implies unclean spirits, night and harm; literature does not keep the two apart.^[9] The sense “to poison” is found only in Petru Maior, and the DA takes it as a learned borrowing of the Greek sense rather than a popular one.^[9][4]

From the spell the verb moved to the effect of beauty or charm: to enchant, delight, captivate.^[2][3] Odobescu wrote that the suitor's gifts fermecară mințile “bewitched the mind” of the princess.^[2] Its derivatives include fermecător “enchanting; sorcerer”, fermecătorie and fermecătură “spell, magic”.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1563 – the first record, in Coresi's Praxiu.^[2]
• 1620 – fărmăca in Moxa's chronicle.^[4][9]
• 1869 – fermeca as the equivalent of Hungarian bájol in Barițiu's dictionary.^[11]
• 1894 – fermecară mințile “bewitched the mind” in Odobescu.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To enchant, delight; to captivate someone through one's qualities, looks or manner.^[3][4][1]
2. (in folk tales and superstitions) To bewitch: to cast spells on someone, bind or transform them by magic.^[3][4]
3. (obsolete) To poison.^[4][9]

Related words

• farmec

Usage notes

The stressed stem has a: farmec, farmecă, subjunctive să farmece; the unstressed forms have e: fermecat.^[3][1] The popular variant fărmăca is used by Creangă.^[12]

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 Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fermeca
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 389
4. ^ 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, 896
5. ^ a b c d 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. farmec
6. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. fermeca
7. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. fermeca
9. ^ a b c d e f 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. fermeca
10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6462
11. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 29
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 279