forfeca

Forms

forfeca (third-person singular present foarfecă, past participle forfecat, third-person subjunctive foarfece) 1st conjugation^[1] Moldavian speech has forfăca and forfoca.^[2] Creangă uses the first of loaves gobbled up: „le-a forfăcat de parcă n-au mai fost” “he chewed them up as if they had never been”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin forficō (“to cut with shears”), a verb formed on forfex (“shears, scissors”).^{[5][2][6][7][1]} Candrea and Densusianu point to its records in the Mulomedicina Chironis and the Latin glossaries.^[7] Its Romance cognates are Sardinian forfigare and Asturian aforfegar.^[7][8][1]

Ciorănescu lists the verb among the derivatives of foarfecă, while allowing that it may continue the Latin verb directly, as Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu and the DA hold.^[8] Tiktin also takes it as apparently formed on foarfece, and gives the Latin verb as the DA's view.^[3] The Latin word may go back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰerdʰ- (“to capture, shear”), cognate with Ancient Greek πέρθω (pérthō, “to sack”).^[1][9]

The verb survives south of the Danube as Aromanian nfoarfic, which Wiktionary derives from foarficã with the prefix n- or from the same Late Latin verb.^[10][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1853, in a text he cites as STAM.^[3] MDA2 dates the word from Creangă's tales of 1890.^[2] In both the sense is “to cut into pieces”, and in Creangă also “to chew up”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense is cutting with scissors, then with any sharp tool: in a tale recorded by Sevastos the hero begins to cut a scorpie, a she-dragon, to pieces with his broadsword.^[6][3] The DA also records the senses “to crush, break into bits” and “to chew”.^[6]

Figurative senses came from the cutting: “to beat soundly”, “to rebuke” and, of critics, “to tear a work to pieces”.^[3][11][5] Vlahuță describes a critic slashing right and left at a writer's work.^[3] The intransitive sense is “to talk without stopping, to gossip”: in Sadoveanu someone sits down on a stool and begins să foarfece din gură.^[4][5]

Timeline

• 1853 – the first record, in a text cited by Tiktin as STAM.^[3]
• 1890 – forfăcat “chewed up” in Creangă's tales, MDA2's first record.^[2][3]
• 1893–1895 – “to cut with scissors; to scold, to beat” in Damé's dictionary.^[12]
• 1931 – “to chatter without stopping” in the CADE.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cut into pieces with scissors or another sharp tool: Croitoreasa a forfecat pânza în fâșii înguste.^[5][2][1]
2. (figurative) To examine a literary or scholarly work with excessive minuteness in order to criticize it and show it in a bad light.^[5][2]
3. (figurative) To criticize harshly; to rebuke severely.^[5][2]
4. (rare) To beat.^[5][2]
5. (intransitive, figurative) To talk on and on, gossiping or backbiting; to grumble.^[5][13]

Word family

• forfecare

Related words

• foarfecă
• Aromanian nfoarfic

Usage notes

The present is foarfec, foarfeci, foarfecă;^[5][3] Cihac also records forfechez.^[5][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 929
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. forfecá
4. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. forfeca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 406
6. ^ a b c 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. forfecá
7. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. forfeca
8. ^ 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. foarfecă
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 725
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 257
12. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. forfeca
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. forfeca