furnică

Forms

furnică f (plural furnici)^[1] Oltenian has furnigă: „au început a se sui pe scări ca furnigile” “they began to climb the ladders like ants” (Dionisie Eclesiarhul).^[2][3] A rare plural is furnice.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin formīca (“ant”).^{[6][7][2][4][8][1]} Romanian has /n/ where Latin had /m/: Candrea and Densusianu explained this by the influence of the labial, but Ciorănescu takes the dialect forms with /n/, Aragonese furnica and French fourniga, as proof that the change is older than Romanian.^[6]

It survives in all four branches: Aromanian furnicã, Megleno-Romanian furnigă and Istro-Romanian frunige.^{[6][9][10][11]} Romance has Italian formica, French fourmi, Catalan formiga, Spanish hormiga and Portuguese formiga.^[6][8][12]

The Latin word goes back to a Proto-Italic *mormīkā with the first /m/ dissimilated to /f/, and is related to Ancient Greek μύρμηξ (múrmēx, “ant”) and Old Church Slavonic мравии (mravii).^[13][1] The words for “ant” differ from language to language, probably from taboo distortion.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the personal name Furnică in Slavonic documents of about 1512–1521.^[2] MDA2 dates the common noun from the Bucharest Bible of 1688:^[7] „Pasă cătră furnică, o, leneșule” “go to the ant, thou sluggard” (Proverbs 6:6).^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Folk names distinguish the large wood ant, the small red ant, the house ant and others; the winged males and females that appear at one time of year are called furnici zburătoare “flying ants”.^[3][7] Folk belief held that winged ants in the house foretold a death.^[3]

Idioms take the ant as a model of hard work and small size: harnic ca o furnică “as busy as an ant”, a se prăsi ca furnicile “to breed like ants”, a mânca ca o furnică “to eat very little”, and a mânca furnici “to eat ants”, that is, to lie.^[4][7][3] The plural also meant prickling or tingling on the skin.^[14] Furnică albă is the termite.^[4][7] Slang uses the word for a small drug dealer.^[15]

Ciorănescu notes that the verb furnica “to swarm, to tingle” may continue Latin formīcō directly, and that furnicar “anthill” is either a Latin *formicarium or a Romanian derivative.^[6][12]

Timeline

• c. 1512 – the personal name Furnică in Slavonic documents.^[2]
• 1649 – the plural furnicile in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[16]
• 1661 – a Moldavian personal name Furnică.^[17]
• 1688 – furnică in the Bucharest Bible, Proverbs 6:6.^[7][18]
• 1814 – ants running about in a calendar.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ant, a small black or red insect of the order Hymenoptera living in colonies, and in the plural the group of these insects.^[4][7][1]
2. furnică albă: a termite.^[4][7]
3. (slang) A small-time drug dealer.^[15]

Word family

• furnica
• furnicătură
• furnicat
• furnicar
• înfurnica
• furnicei
• furnicos

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. furnică
3. ^ 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. furnică
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 421
5. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 347
6. ^ a b c d e 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. furnică
7. ^ 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, 956
8. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 58
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 481
10. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 186
11. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 220
12. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3445
13. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
14. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 264
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. furnică
16. ^ 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. furnicile
17. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. furnică
18. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Paremiile lui Solomon 6:6