lucrare

Forms

lucrare f (plural lucrări)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of lucra (“to work”), formed from Romanian lucra + -re, and so a verbal noun “the act of working and its result”.^[2][3][4][1] The verb is from Latin lucrāre (“to gain, profit”);^[5] Ciorănescu calls the shift from “to gain” to “to work” a normal one, found across the languages, and compares French travailler, used also of money that earns.^[5] An older derivation of the verb from lūcubrō (“to work by lamplight”) does not seem possible to him.^[5] The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian lucredzu, Megleno-Romanian lucrez and Istro-Romanian lucrez.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The form lucrarea first appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 103:24.^[6] Tiktin's first record is from the Codicele Voronețean, in Acts 19:24, and MDA2's from Coresi's Cazanie of 1581, with the sense “effort, work done to achieve something”.^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word meant the making of something, an action and its working: the DLR quotes lucrarea of a city being built, and Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin actio, operatio.^[4][8] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 gives Latin opus, operatio, labor for it.^[9] In the 19th century the sense of a finished work grew: a written work, a study, the proceedings of an assembly (lucrările Camerei), and public works (lucrări publice).^[10][11][12] The sense “labour, effort” is now dated, and lucrarea pământului means “agriculture”.^[2][3] In slang a lucrare is a plot set up against someone.^[13]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – lucrarea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalm 103:24.^[6]
• c. 1563-1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 19:24).^[7]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Cazanie, “work, effort”.^[3]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses it “action, operation”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of working and its result; work, activity;^[2][3] (dated) effort to achieve something.^[2][3]
2. Something made by physical or intellectual work; a written study on a subject, a scientific or artistic work: și-a susținut lucrarea de licență “he defended his degree thesis”.^[2][1]
3. An operation or set of operations carried out with machines and equipment to build, repair or change something; the structure made in this way: lucrări de reparații “repair works”.^[2]
4. A written test or exam paper.^[1]
5. Carrying out, accomplishment.^[2]

Related words

• lucru
• lucrător

Usage notes

A pune în lucrare means “to begin carrying out, to put into practice”;^[2] lucrarea solului is the ploughing and harrowing of the soil, and lucrarea pământului “agriculture”.^[2] The plural lucrări is also used of the sessions of an assembly: comisia și-a încheiat lucrările “the committee has finished its work”.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 602
3. ^ 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
4. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lucrare
5. ^ 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. lucra
6. ^ 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 103:24
7. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. lucrare
8. ^ 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. 392
9. ^ 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. 360
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 371
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 758
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. lucrare
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. lucrare
14. ^ 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. lucrare
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ps 106:23