focar

Forms

focar n (plural focare)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian foc + -ar, and its modern senses follow French foyer.^[2][3][4] The DA keeps apart an old ⟨focare⟩ or ⟨focariu⟩ “pyre”, which it derives from Vulgar Latin *focārium (“place where a fire is made”), like the French word and Spanish hoguera “pyre”;^[4] Candrea and Densusianu derive it from Latin focārius.^[5] Wiktionary allows both explanations.^[1] Gabinschi sees the modern word as modelled on French, imitating what Romanian would have made of the Latin word.^[6]

foc is from focus (“hearth”),^[1] and the French word comes from a Late Latin noun formed on the adjective focārius (“of the hearth”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints (1682–1686), with the sense “pyre”: „Aprinzând un focariu mare, fu aruncat în mijlocul focului” “they lit a great pyre, and he was thrown into the midst of the fire”.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The pyre is now an old sense; in western Transylvania the word was used figuratively for a great misfortune, in curses such as Bată-te focarea!.^[4][8] The modern word came with the French model: the point where light rays meet after passing through a lens or leaving a mirror, the foci of a curve in geometry, and the part of a furnace or boiler where fuel burns.^[4][9] Figuratively, a focar is a centre from which ideas or influences spread, and in medicine the seat of an infection.^[9][10]

Timeline

• 1682–1686 – focariu and focare “pyre” in Dosoftei, the first record.^[4][2]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda records the figurative sense “misfortune”.^[4]
• 1893–1895 – Damé glosses focar with French foyer.^[11]
• 1931 – CADE gives the senses in optics, geometry and figurative use.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. (physics) The focus of an optical system: the point where parallel rays meet after reflection or refraction;^[1] focar real, focar virtual.^[9][1]
2. (geometry) Each of the two points of a curve or surface whose distances to its points give a constant sum, difference or product.^[9]
3. The part of a furnace, boiler or heating installation where the fuel burns; a firebox.^[9][1]
4. (figurative) A centre where ideas, actions or feelings gather, then spread; a hotbed;^[1] focar de infecție “seat of an infection”.^[9][1]
5. (archaic) A great fire, a pyre.^[2][1]

Related words

• foc
• French foyer

Usage notes

An old masculine focar “stoker” is a separate agent noun formed on foc, since replaced by fochist.^[4][13][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 923
3. ^ Wikționar (Romanian Wiktionary), ro.wiktionary.org
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. focar
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. focar
6. ^ Gabinschi, Marcu (2001), Dicționar de dublete etimologice ale limbii române, 2nd ed., Chișinău: Litera, p. 104
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. focar
9. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 403
10. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. focar
11. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. focar
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. focar
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 518