marfă

Forms

marfă f (plural mărfuri)^[1] The older and Transylvanian form is marhă, as in Coresi's Ten Commandments: „nici sluga ta, nici slujnica ta, nici marha ta” “nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle”.^[2][3] The Banat has marvă and mară: „Să nu le strice lupii marvele” “so that the wolves don't harm their cattle”.^[2][4] Old plurals are marfe and mărfi.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Hungarian marha (“cattle; goods”), the source DEX, MDA2, Tiktin and Tamás give.^{[5][4][3][6][1]} The Hungarian word, first recorded in 1358, is a Bavarian-Austrian loan, from Old High German marchat (“trade, market, goods”), the final ⟨-t⟩ being dropped as if it were the accusative ending.^[7][8] The German word goes back to Vulgar Latin *marcatus, from Latin mercātus (“trade, market”).^[9][1]

Tamás follows Kniezsa in this, and says the order of the senses in the Romanian texts, first “goods”, then “cattle”, supports it.^[6] Ciorănescu derives the word both from Slavic, citing Serbo-Croatian marha and the Ukrainian form, as well as Hungarian, and traces them to Old High German mariha (“horse”).^[10] Tamás notes that the Slavic explanation of Cihac and Berneker was already rejected by Hasdeu.^[6] The DLR takes the Banat form marvă from Serbo-Croatian mrva, and Tamás too thinks Serbo-Croatian may have passed it on.^[2][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears in the Slavonic charters from 1431–1432, with the sense “property, goods”.^[6][3] In Romanian texts it appears in the 16th century as marhă: in a Coresi print, dated by Tamás 1579–1580, it means a beast of burden, and in the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582) a stolen ox, ass or sheep.^[6][2] MDA2 gives 1564 for the Coresi text.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the old language marhă meant both movable property and livestock, the two senses mixing: dobitoace și alte negoațe “cattle and other goods”.^[6][2] Tiktin compares Latin pecūnia (“wealth, money”) from pecus (“cattle”).^[3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has marfa for the household goods of the king.^[3][6] The form marfă became the word for “merchandise” in the standard language, while marhă and marvă “cattle” lived on in Transylvania, Maramureș and the Banat.^[6][10][4]

As a term of abuse, marhă is a coarse, stupid person.^[4][2] Romanian lent the word back: Ukrainian has marfa, and the Székely and Csángó dialects have Hungarian márfa (“luggage, goods”) (1873), from the Romanian articled form.^[10][11] In youth slang of the late 1990s marfă became an indeclinable adjective, “great, first-rate”.^[12][13]

Timeline

• 1431-1432 – marha “goods” in Slavonic charters, the first record.^[6][3]
• 1579-1580 – marhă “beast of burden” in a Coresi print.^[6]
• 1581-1582 – marhă “livestock” and “property” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[2]
• 1619 – cu negoațe și cu marhă “with goods and wares” in a Bukovina letter.^[6]
• 1688 – marfa “household goods” in the Bucharest Bible.^[3]
• 1801 – márfa “merchandise” in Klein's dictionary.^[6][14]
• 1873 – Hungarian márfa, borrowed from Romanian.^[11]
• late 1990s – marfă “great” in youth slang.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. goods, merchandise: a product of labour meant to be sold and bought.^[5][4][1]
2. (regional, Transylvania, Banat, as marhă, marvă) A head of cattle, an ox or cow; a domestic animal.^[4][10]
3. (slang) Contraband; a prostitute.^[13]

Adjective

1. (slang, invariable) Great, first-rate.^[12][13]

Word family

• mărfar
• marfagiu

Related words

• Hungarian marha

Usage notes

A-și lăuda marfa means to praise one's own things or merits, and altă marfă “another kind of goods” is said of a different matter.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. marfă
3. ^ 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. marfă
4. ^ 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, 1433
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 619
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Tamás, Lajos (1966), Etymologisch-historisches Wörterbuch der ungarischen Elemente im Rumänischen, Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 516
7. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 845
8. ^ Zaicz, Gábor (ed.) (2006), Etimológiai szótár: magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete, Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, p. s.v. marha
9. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
10. ^ 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. marfă
11. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 2, 844
12. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. marfă
13. ^ a b c Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. marfă
14. ^ 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. 396