murseca

Forms

murseca (third-person singular present mursecă, past participle mursecat, third-person subjunctive mursece) first conjugation^[1] Regional variants include mursica, morseca, morsica, morsoca and morțoca.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin morsicō (“to bite repeatedly, nibble”),^{[4][3][2][5][1]} following Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu.^[4] The Latin verb is formed on morsus (“bitten”), the participle of mordeō (“to bite”).^[6][4]

The verb survives in Aromanian mursicare.^[4][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian morsicare, Sardinian mossigare, Catalan mossegar, Portuguese mossegar and Spanish amusgar.^[4][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The participle mursecat appears in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of c. 1660–1670.^[9] Tiktin's first record is of 1703.^[5] A text that MDA2 and DLR cite as Învățătură has „altă vită ... fu morsicată di cânele cel turbat” “another beast ... was bitten by the rabid dog”.^[10][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used mainly of wild beasts and dogs that tear their prey with their teeth: a wolf mauls a foal, a bear its heifer.^[10][11] Anton Pann recorded the proverb „Cine e mursecat de șarpe se păzește și de șopârlă” “whoever has been bitten by a snake is wary even of a lizard”.^[10][5] From there it came to mean crushing flesh and bones, bruising, and, figuratively, beating someone, as in Caragiale.^[3][11] Regional senses run from playful biting of dogs and cats to mumbling with toothless gums, kneading dough and wearying someone.^[2][10]

Timeline

• c. 1660–1670 – the participle mursecat in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1703 – Tiktin's first dated record.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (popular, transitive) To maul, to bite and tear with the teeth, mostly of animals.^[3][2][1]
2. (regional) To crush the bones or flesh of a living being; to bruise.^[3]
3. (figurative) To beat someone.^[3][11]
4. (rare, of people) To eat greedily, to devour.^[2][12]
5. (regional, of dogs and cats) To take in the mouth without biting; reflexive, to bite one another in play.^[2]

Word family

• mursecătură
• mursecare

Related words

• mușca

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 80
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 683
4. ^ a b c d e 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. murseca
5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mursecá
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ a b 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. mursecat
10. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. murseca
11. ^ 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, 148
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. murseca