lucra

Forms

Present lucrez, third person lucrează (colloquially lucră); past participle lucrat; first conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is most probably inherited from Late Latin lucrō (“to gain, profit”), from lucror (“to gain”), a verb formed on lucrum (“gain, profit”).^[1][2][3][4] Ciorănescu finds the shift from “to gain” to “to work” natural and compares French travailler, which can mean both “to work” and “to yield wealth”.^[2] In Medieval Latin the verb also meant “to work the land”.^[5][2]

Candrea and Densusianu proposed lūcubrō (“to work by lamplight”), and DEX gives this etymon;^[2][6][7] Ciorănescu does not think it possible.^[2][6][7]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian lucredzu, Megleno-Romanian lucrez and Istro-Romanian lucrez.^[2][8] Elsewhere in Romance the Latin verb gave Spanish lograr and Portuguese lograr “to obtain” and Italian logorare “to wear out”.^[4] The noun lucru “work, thing” is inherited separately, from the Latin noun.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has lucra (Psalm 101:23) and lucrară “they worked” in three psalms.^[9][10] Tiktin's first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 21:31), and MDA2's in Coresi's book of homilies of 1581.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

MDA2 records as obsolete senses “to earn by one's work, to gain” and “to procure”, close to the Latin verb.^[12] The old texts also use it for “to do, make”: Varlaam's homilies of 1643 have „Noi... nu lucrăm fapte bune” “we do no good works”.^[3] The modern senses are “to work”, “to work the land”, “to function” and “to take effect”.^[6][12] Tiktin quotes Miron Costin's „Ce nu lucrează în lume avuția!” “what wealth does not bring about in the world!” for the sense “to have an effect”.^[11] Colloquially a lucra pe cineva means “to scheme against someone”: „Te voi lucra eu!” “I'll fix you!”.^[11][6]

The regional present lucru survives beside the usual lucrez.^[6][12] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives lucrare “work”, lucrător “worker”, lucrătură “workmanship; intrigue” and prelucra “to process”;^[2] conlucra “to collaborate” follows Latin collaborare.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – lucra and lucrară in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9][10]
• c. 1551–1558 – lucrați in the Voroneț psalter.^[13]
• 1570 – lucrează in Coresi's psalter.^[14]
• 16th century – the Psaltirea Scheiană, Tiktin's first record.^[11]
• 1581 – Coresi's book of homilies, MDA2's first record.^[12]
• 1643 – „nu lucrăm fapte bune” in Varlaam's homilies.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To work, to do a job; to make or build something.^[6][1]
2. To cultivate the land, a vineyard.^[12][11]
3. To function, be in operation.^[6]
4. To act, have an effect.^[6][11]
5. To shape or process a material; to sew, embroider or knit.^[6][2]
6. (figurative, colloquial) To plot against someone.^[6][11]

Word family

• lucrare
• lucrător
• lucrătură
• prelucra
• conlucra

Related words

• lucru
• Latin lucrum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. lucra
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lucra
4. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5145
5. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 110
6. ^ 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. 602
7. ^ a b 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. lucra
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ a b 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 101:23
10. ^ a b 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 80:5
11. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lucra
12. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1399
13. ^ 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 99:1
14. ^ 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 14:2