marca

Forms

a marca (third-person singular present marchează, past participle marcat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French marquer, with German markieren as a second model in DEX, MDA2 and the DLR.^[2][3][4] The neologism dictionaries name French and compare Italian marcare, and Wiktionary gives French and Italian.^[5][1] CADE names only French.^[6] The German verb is itself borrowed from French around 1700.^[7][8] The French verb, recorded from 1456, is a dialect form of Old French merchier (“to mark”), a Norman verb formed on merc (“sign”); its ⟨a⟩ is probably due to the Italian verb, recorded from the 13th century.^[9] Wiktionary traces the Old French noun to Old Norse merki (“sign”).^[1] Nocentini takes the Italian verb from a Germanic verb meaning “to make a sign”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Negulici's dictionary of neologisms of 1848 has markare, glossed with the native words a însemna and a nota.^[11] MDA2 dates it to Polizu's Romanian–German vocabulary of 1857, and the DLR cites Polizu, Pontbriant and Costinescu for the sense “to put a mark on someone or something”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was the concrete one, to put a distinguishing mark on cattle, crates or linen, and in the trade, to stamp precious metal with the hallmark.^[4][12] Foresters use it of marking with the hammer the trees to be felled.^[3] Figurative senses grew in the press and criticism of the 20th century: Macedonski and Ibrăileanu write that a man or a novel marchează a date in literary history.^[4] Sport added two senses: to mark an opposing player, and to score a goal or a point.^[2][13] MDA2 also records a figurative sense, to influence decisively a person's development.^[3]

Timeline

• 1848 – markare “to note, to mark” in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[11]
• 1857 – in Polizu's Romanian–German vocabulary.^[3]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's Romanian–French dictionary.^[4]
• 1931 – CADE marks it as a neologism from French.^[6]
• 1955–1957 – a marca un gol “to score a goal”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To mark: to put a distinguishing sign on an object, an animal and so on.^[2][3]
2. To hallmark precious metal with the official stamp of its quality.^[2][3]
3. (figurative) To be a characteristic feature of; to represent: Romanul a marcat o epocă.^[2]
4. To bring out, to stress; to show, to be evidence of.^[2][3]
5. To mark out an area with lines or signs.^[2]
6. (sports) To score a goal or a point: Echipa a marcat două goluri.^[2][13]
7. (sports) To mark an opposing player, to keep him from attacking.^[2][3]
8. (figurative) To leave a deep mark on a person's development.^[3][1]

Word family

• marcare

Related words

• marcă
• remarca

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. 618
3. ^ 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, 1431
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. marca
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. marca
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. marca
7. ^ Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
8. ^ Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 602
9. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. 253
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 383
13. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 16