gașcă

Forms

gașcă f (plural găști)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Cihac traced it to Russian гайка (gájka, “nut (of a screw)”), and Scriban also gave the Russian word;^[2][6] Ciorănescu rejects this as making no sense.^[2][6] The DA explains Cihac's sense “nut, screw hole” as a confusion with gâscă (“goose”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Polizu's Romanian–German dictionary of 1857 is the first to record the word, in the phrase a sparge gașca “to break up the clique”.^[5][4][7]

Semantic evolution

The DA took the basic sense to be “hole”: in a children's game a hole in the ground the size of a cap was called gașcă or târg.^[7] Iordan also took this old sense of a hole as the starting point of the word's many senses.^[8] In Moldavia it meant a hut, a stall or a gypsy camp; from “the hidden place where bad people meet and plot” came the sense of a secret band with bad aims, a clique.^[7][4][5] Ciorănescu gives just two senses, “hut” and “small group, band”.^[2]

The dictionaries of the 1950s define it in moral terms, as a narrow group without principles that serves its own interests against those of society.^[9][10] In recent usage the word has lost much of its bad sense: it can name any group of young friends who go out together, and a fi de gașcă means “to be a good mate”.^[4][11]

Timeline

• 1857 – first recorded in Polizu's dictionary.^[5][4]
• 1879 – Cihac compares the Russian word for a screw nut.^[2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the senses “hut”, “lodging” (ironic) and “gang, coterie”.^[12]
• 2007 – a slang dictionary records the sense “group of teenagers, group of friends”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (colloquial) A small, close group of people, especially one bent on disreputable ends; a gang, a clique.^[3][4][1]
2. (colloquial) A group of young friends who spend their free time together: Toată gașca a plecat la munte.^[4][11]
3. (dated, Moldavia) A hut or shack; a gypsy camp.^[4][7]
4. (regional) In children's games, a hole in the ground about the size of a cap.^[4][7]

Usage notes

A (se) sparge gașca means “(of a clique) to break up”, and also “(of a party or gathering) to come to an end”.^[3][4] The plural is găști;^[7][5] gaște also occurs.^[7][5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. gașcă
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 427
4. ^ 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, 966
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gașcă
6. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 542
7. ^ 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. gașcă
8. ^ Iordan, Iorgu (1983), Dicționar al numelor de familie românești, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 215
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 358
10. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. gașcă
11. ^ a b c Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. gașcă
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 269