frică

Forms

frică f (plural frici)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Byzantine Greek φρίκη (phríkē, “shudder, horror”), an old loan from Greek.^[1][2][3] Ciorănescu writes the Greek form as Modern Greek, MDA2 marks the origin as unknown and only compares the Greek word, and Wiktionary allows Ancient Greek as well.^[4][5][1] The word survives in all four branches, Aromanian fricã, Megleno-Romanian frică and Istro-Romanian frică, and Ciorănescu and Wiktionary take its presence in Istro-Romanian as a sign of a very old borrowing.^[4][1][6] Albanian frikë is a cognate.^[4][1]

The Greek word goes back to Ancient Greek φρίκη (phríkē) “shivering, shuddering fear”, attested from the 5th century BC, an extension of φρίξ (phríx, “ruffling, shivering”).^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The earliest psalter, the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, has frică seven times, from Psalm 2:11 on.^[8] MDA2 and Tiktin cite the Codicele Voronețean, at 1 Peter 3:2.^[5][9] The sense is already “fear”, often the fear of God.^[8][9]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “fear” from the first texts on; the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it 119 times.^[10] The DA distinguishes it from its near synonyms: teamă is unease before an evil one foresees, groază a great fear that makes one shudder, spaimă a sudden fright.^[2] Frică is also lack of courage, a sense MDA2 lists apart.^[2][5]

Many phrases are built on it: frica lui Dumnezeu “the fear of God”, mi-e frică “I am afraid”, a băga (cuiva) frica în oase “to frighten someone badly”, and nici de frică “by no means”.^[9][11] The proverb frica păzește bostănăria “fear guards the melon patch” says that fear alone keeps people from doing what they shouldn't.^[12][5] Romanian lent the word to Ruthenian, as fryka.^[4][12]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – frică in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][9]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – 119 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin timor, metus.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. fear: a state of deep unease and agitation caused by a real or imagined danger.^[11][5][1]
2. Lack of courage and the sense of being vulnerable that comes with it; cowardice.^[5][15]
3. A fright, a sudden scare.^[5]
4. A strong aversion to something or someone.^[5]

Word family

• fricos
• înfrica
• înfricoșetor

Related words

• Aromanian fricã
• Albanian frikë

Usage notes

The plural frici is rare.^[15][5] Set phrases: fără frică “fearless, fearlessly”, cu frică “fearfully”.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. frică
3. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 260
4. ^ 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. frică
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 943
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 469
7. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
8. ^ a b c Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 2:11
9. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. frică
10. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 15:12
11. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 414
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 528
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. frică
14. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 225
15. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 329