noroc

Forms

noroc n (plural noroace)^[1] The old and popular form is năroc: „Uneori ne pare că pohta și cearerea noastră aduce noauă năroc” “sometimes it seems to us that our wish and our asking bring us luck” (Varlaam).^[2][3] Regional forms are norăc, naroc and noruc.^[2][4] The plural is noroace, rarely norocuri; the vocative is noroace or norocule.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic нарокъ (narokŭ).^[5][2][6][1] In the Codex Suprasliensis the Slavonic noun renders Ancient Greek ψῆφος (psêphos, “pebble, vote”);^[7][8][9] ESSJa gives its senses as “a set term” and “a vote”, BER as “naming”.^[7][8][9] It is formed of на- (na-) and рокъ (rokŭ, “set time, term; rule”), from Proto-Slavic *rokъ.^[1][10] Vasmer and Wiktionary connect the Proto-Slavic noun with *rekti (“to say, speak”), and compare the passage from “what is said” to “fate” in Latin fātum.^[7][1] Scriban and Șăineanu explain the Romanian word in the same way, as “what was pronounced, decided”.^[3][11]

Ciorănescu compares Serbo-Croatian narok and Polish narok.^[5] BER records Bulgarian нарок (narok) in the senses “fate”, archaic “happiness” and, in some dialects, “cheers”, and names the Romanian word as a loan from Slavic.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to a document of 1589;^[6][4] MDA2's first record is a prayer book of 1639.^[6][4] In the old language it meant “fate, destiny”, good or bad: Ureche wrote „Norocul țării cel bun s-au schimbat, că după noroc bun i-au venit și rău” “the country's good fortune changed, for after good luck came bad”.^[6][2] In Dosoftei a woman is one „căriia i-au fost scrisă în năroc” “for whom it was written in her fate” to fall into sin.^[6]

Semantic evolution

In the modern language the fate is a favourable one: “luck, good fortune”.^[2][12] From this came “chance” (la noroc “at random”), joc de noroc “game of chance”, and the sense “happiness, well-being” of 19th-century poetry, as in Eminescu's „De noroc i-s umezi ochii” “her eyes are moist with happiness”.^[2][12] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to gloss Slavonic words for prosperity.^[13]

Noroc! was first a wish, “good luck!”, and later also a greeting and a toast;^[2][12] a da noroc means both “to greet” and “to clink glasses”.^[2][12] In Maramureș noroc bun! is a common greeting.^[14] Its opposite is nenoroc, recorded from 1644, and the adjective nenorocit follows in 1698.^[15][16]

Timeline

• 1589 – first record, in a document cited by Tiktin.^[6]
• 1639 – in a prayer book, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1644 – nenoroc “misfortune”.^[15][17]
• 1660 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[13]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, at Genesis 30:11.^[18]
• 1698 – nenorocit “unfortunate”.^[16]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed Latin fortuna, Hungarian szerencse and German Glück.^[19]

Meanings

Noun

1. fate, destiny, especially a favourable one;^[12][4] la noroc or într-un noroc “at random”.^[12][4]
2. luck, chance: circumstances that bring success;^[12][4] joc de noroc “game of chance”;^[12][4] a avea noroc “to be lucky”: Am avut noroc cu vremea. “We were lucky with the weather.”^[12][4]
3. Happiness, well-being.^[4][2]

Interjection

1. A greeting or a wish: good luck!; cheers! when drinking.^[12][1]
2. bless you! after a sneeze.^[1]

Word family

• noroceală
• norocire
• noroci
• norocos
• nenoroc
• nenoroci
• nenorocos
• nenorocit

Usage notes

Proverbs such as norocul e cum și-l face omul “luck is what one makes of it” are recorded in the CADE.^[20]

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 j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. noroc
3. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 876
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 167
5. ^ a b 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. noroc
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. noroc
7. ^ a b c Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 3, 45
8. ^ a b Trubačev, Oleg N.; Žuravlev, Anatolij F.; Varbot, Žanna Ž. (eds.) (1974–2021), Ètimologičeskij slovar' slavjanskix jazykov: praslavjanskij leksičeskij fond, vols. 1–42, Moskva: Nauka, p. 23, 8
9. ^ a b c Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 513
10. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 433
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 721
13. ^ 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. noroc
14. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2011), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din Maramureș, Baia Mare: Ethnologica, p. s.v. noroc
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 135
16. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. nenorocit
17. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. nenoroc
18. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 30:11
19. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 449
20. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. noroc