oarecum

Forms

oarecum^[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian oare + cum.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu lists it among the compounds of the particle, beside oarecare, oarecând and oareunde, with a parallel series in ori- such as oricum.^[5]

He traces the particle, after Tiktin and Scriban, to Vulgar Latin *volet, a popular form used for vult (“wants”), and finds Candrea's derivation from oară “time” harder to accept for the meaning.^[5] Wiktionary gives that Latin source or a borrowing from an early form of Albanian vallë.^[1] The second part continues Late Latin quomo, from quōmodo (“how”).^[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Vasile Lupu's Pravila of 1646, the Moldavian law code: a servant who runs away from the house on the day of a theft „dă prepus oarecum” “gives some ground for suspicion”.^[3][4] Already there it has the modern sense “to some degree”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons record it from about 1660.^[7] The old language also used it as a conjunction “just as”, and in the phrase nu oarecum să… “by no means…, lest…”; both are now obsolete.^[4][3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders it with Hungarian words for “somehow” and “as”.^[8] Regional speech has the expression a-i fi oarecum “to feel awkward or ashamed”, used by Creangă.^[2][4] Old texts also have a variant varecum, and oareșicum is a current variant.^[3][4][2]

Timeline

• 1646 – oarecum “somewhat” in Vasile Lupu's Pravila, the first record.^[3][4]
• c. 1660 – recorded in the first of the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[7]
• 1689 – varecum “just as” in a text of that year.^[4]
• 1801 – in Klein's dictionary.^[8]
• 1825 – the extended form oarecumva in the Buda Lexicon.^[3]

Meanings

Adverb

1. To some extent; somewhat, in a way: Era oarecum obosit. “He was somewhat tired.”^[2][3]
2. Somehow, in some manner.^[3][9]
3. (regional) In the expression a-i fi (cuiva) oarecum: to feel uneasy or ashamed.^[2][10]
4. (obsolete) Just as, like.^[3][4]

Related words

• oare
• cum
• oarecare
• oarecumva
• oricum

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 727
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, 180
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. oarecum
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. oare
6. ^ 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. cum
7. ^ 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. oarecum
8. ^ a b 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. 407
9. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. oarecum
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 235