norocos

Forms

norocos m or n (feminine singular norocoasă, masculine plural norocoși, feminine/neuter plural norocoase)^[1] Old and popular texts have nărocos, as the Herodotus of 1645: „Nici pre un om n-am auzit, carile n-au murit rău, dezrădăcinat, fiind nărocos pururea” “I have heard of no man who, being always lucky, did not die badly, uprooted”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian noroc (“luck”) + -os.^{[1][4][3][5][2]} The noun is from Old Church Slavonic нарокъ (narokŭ, “sentence, decree”), from на- (na-) and рокъ (rokŭ).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Romanian translation of Herodotus of 1645, as nărocos “lucky, favoured by fortune”.^[3][5][2] The base noroc is recorded from 1639.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The adjective first described people who have luck, and so those who succeed in what they undertake.^[2][3] It was then said of actions and events that turn out well, and of things that bring luck.^[4][3] The old language had the synonym norocit in the same senses.^[3] The negative is nenorocos “luckless”.^[5][6]

Timeline

• 1645 – nărocos in the Romanian Herodotus, the first record.^[3][5]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses it with French heureux.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of people, lucky, fortunate: having luck, succeeding in everything they do.^[4][3][1]
2. Of actions, ending well; bringing luck: o zi norocoasă “a lucky day”.^[4][8]

Word family

• nenorocos

Related words

• noroc
• norocit
• nenoroc
• nenorocire

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. norocos
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 167
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 721
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. norocos
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 181
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. norocos