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mișca

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word mișca

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
1563 Coresi's Praxiu More words from the 16th century
Inherited from
Latin *miscico

Pronunciation

Forms

mișca (third-person singular present mișcă, past participle mișcat, third-person subjunctive miște) 1st conjugation[1] Old texts sometimes have the second person mișci and the subjunctive să mișce.[2][3]

Etymology

Its origin is unclear: DEX and DLR call it of unknown origin, and Tiktin an inherited word whose source is obscure.[4][5][2] Megleno-Romanian has the verb micicari.[6][2]

DER thinks it likely comes from mĭscīre (“to stir”), whose outcome is Spanish mecer, through a derivative such as inherited from Vulgar Latin *mĭscĭcāre; that form would normally have given ⟨*mișčcare⟩, which the Megleno-Romanian verb reflects.[6][1] DER rejects the other proposals: straight from the Latin verb in its classical form (Philippide), from *micĭcāre for micō (“to move quickly, flicker”) (Candrea), and Cihac's Slavonic verb meaning “to roam through”.[6] Wiktionary also gives Vulgar Latin *mixticāre as a possible source.[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Praxiu of 1563, in Ephesians 4:14.[2] MDA2's first record is a passage of Dosoftei.[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is to move or be moved from rest or balance.[4][5] DLR quotes the reflexive să mișca “moved, stirred” of the dead Teodora from a text of 1698.[5] From physical movement the verb went to setting people in motion and moving them emotionally: a text of 1826 speaks of men „mișcați fiind de iubirea căminului strămoșesc” “moved by love of the ancestral home”.[2]

Colloquial senses are newer: mișcă! “get going!”, mișcă ceva? “is there anything in it?”, and “to get by, to manage”, which Volceanov lists as slang.[2][4][7] The phrase a mișca toate pietrele means “to leave no stone unturned”.[2][3]

Timeline

  • 1563 – mișca in Coresi's Praxiu (Ephesians 4:14), the first record.[2]
  • 1589 – mișcă in Coresi's psalter of 1589 (Psalm 68:39).[8]
  • 1688 – mișca in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 7:21).[9]
  • 1698 – the reflexive să mișca “moved, stirred”.[5]
  • 1826 – mișcați “moved” (by love).[2]

Meanings

Verb

  1. (intransitive, reflexive and transitive) To move: to come or bring out of rest; to change place or position.[4][1]
  2. To work, or to set going: of a mechanism, to run.[4][3]
  3. (reflexive and intransitive) To start off, to go forward;[4] (colloquial, imperative) mișcă! “get going!”.[4][1]
  4. (reflexive) To frequent a certain society.[4]
  5. (reflexive and intransitive) To come out of passivity, to act; of groups, to agitate or rise up.[4]
  6. (figurative, colloquial) To show some skill, to get by; of a business, to do well.[4][7]
  7. (transitive, figurative) To urge someone to act, to spur on.[4]
  8. (transitive) To move emotionally, to touch.[4][1]

Word family

  • mișcăcios
  • mișcare
  • mișcător
  • nemișcat
  • Megleno-Romanian micicari

Usage notes

A mișca din urechi “to waggle one's ears” is a colloquial way of hinting at a bacșiș.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mișca
  3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 27
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 660
  5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mișca
  6. ^ a b c 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. mișca
  7. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mișca
  8. ^ 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 68:39
  9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 7:21

Related etymologies

  • apă · also from Latin
  • bun · also from Latin
  • unde · also from Latin
  • veni · also from Latin
  • noi · also from Latin
  • bine · also from Latin
  • un · also from Latin
  • și · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Mișca.” Etymologically, 11 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/mi%C8%99ca. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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