jucător

Forms

jucător m (plural jucători, feminine equivalent jucătoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian juca (“to play; to dance”) + -ător, the agent suffix of verbs.^[2][3][4][1] Similar agent nouns were made from the same Latin verb elsewhere in Romance: Italian giocatore and Spanish jugador.^[1] Cihac listed it in the family of joc and juca, which continue Latin iocus (“jest, game”) and iocor (“to jest”).^[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Carte de învățătură (the Homiliary) of 1581.^[3][4] Klein's dictionary of 1801 has jucatóriu with the Latin glosses saltator “dancer” and lusor “player”, the two senses the word still has.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Since juca means both “to play” and “to dance”, the noun names a player of any game as well as a dancer, especially in folk dances: Tiktin has jucător de cărți “card player” and jucător pe funie “tightrope dancer”.^[4][8] Costinescu gave both senses in 1870, with a third for a person with a passion for cards.^[9] Barcianu glossed it in 1886 with German Spieler and Tänzer.^[10]

The sporting sense of a member of a team is now the most common.^[3][2] Used as an adjective, rarely, it means “playful, lively”, and of a part of a machine “moving, not fixed”.^[3][11] In the slang of the underworld a jucător is a false witness.^[12]

Timeline

• 1581 – jucător in Coresi's Carte de învățătură, the first record.^[3][4]
• 1801 – jucatóriu “dancer, player” in Klein's dictionary.^[7]
• 1870 – “dancer” and “card player” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1886 – German Spieler and Tänzer in Barcianu's dictionary, with the feminine jucătoare “dancer”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A player: a person who takes part in a sport, a party game or a game of chance: jucător de tenis, jucător de șah.^[2][13]
2. (popular) A dancer, especially in folk dances such as the horă.^[2][3]
3. (slang) A false witness.^[12]

Adjective

1. (rare) playful, lively; restless.^[2][3]
2. (of a part or object) Moving all the time, not fixed.^[3]

Related words

• joc
• juca
• Italian giocatore

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 567
3. ^ 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, 1289
4. ^ 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. jucător
5. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 133
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 471
8. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 718
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 4
10. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 335
11. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 704
12. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. jucător
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. jucător