mortăciune

Forms

mortăciune f (plural mortăciuni)^[1] Old and regional forms are mortăciună, mortăcină and morticină.^[2][1] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has mortăciună beside mortăciune.^[3] Mortăcină was first an adjective, as in carne mortăcină “carrion meat” in the Pravila of Matei Basarab.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin morticīna (“carrion”), the feminine of morticīnus (“of an animal that died, dead”), used as a noun.^[6][2][7][1] Scriban explains the noun by an implied caro (“flesh”).^[5] The ending -ciune came from the many words with that suffix, and the ⟨o⟩ was kept under the influence of mort.^[8][1] Candrea and Densusianu point out that the older Romanian form ⟨mortăcină⟩ was still an adjective.^[4]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian murtuțină, murtãciuni and Megleno-Romanian murtăciuni.^[6][9][10] Its Romance cognates include Spanish mortecina and Portuguese mortezinho.^[6][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Gospel text of 1551–1553, at Matthew 24:28, where the eagles gather about the carcass.^[8] MDA2 dates it to the Bucharest Bible of 1688, where Jezebel's body will be „ca gunoiul pre fața țarenii” “like dung upon the face of the field”.^[2][11] The same Bible has it five times in Leviticus (Preoția).^[12]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the carcass of an animal that died, carrion; the old law books forbid a priest to eat it.^[8][7] From it came a contemptuous word for a human corpse.^[8][7] In familiar use it is a very thin, weak creature, a bag of bones, and in imprecations a term of abuse.^[13][11] Religious usage applies it to meat from an animal not slaughtered by the rite.^[2] Regional senses include a ghost (moroi) in Banat and Transylvania, brushwood in Muntenia, and an infectious disease.^[2] In the old underworld slang it meant a murder.^[14]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – mortăciune “carcass” in a Gospel text, the first record.^[8]
• 1688 – mortăciune and mortăciună in the Bucharest Bible.^[2][12]
• 1801 – mortăciune “a dead thing” in Klein's dictionary.^[15]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The carcass of an animal or bird, carrion; by extension a corpse.^[7][1]
2. (figurative) A very thin creature, weak and sickly; a bag of bones.^[7][13]
3. (religion) Meat of an animal not slaughtered by the rite.^[2]
4. (Banat, Transylvania) A ghost, a moroi.^[2]

Related words

• mort
• moarte
• Aromanian murtuțină
• Latin morticīna

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, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 59
3. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ezek 4:14
4. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. mortăciune
5. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 834
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. mortăciune
7. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 675
8. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mortăciúne
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 717
10. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 684
11. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mortăciune
12. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Lev 5:2
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 129
14. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. mortăciune
15. ^ 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. 401