oricare

Forms

oricare (genitive-dative masculine oricărui(a), feminine oricărei(a), plural oricăror(a))^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ori + care.^[2][3][4][1] DELR traces ori to the old disjunctive conjunction ⟨veri⟩, from a form of vrea (“to want”), and records an old variant ⟨vericare⟩.^[4] Ciorănescu treats it as a variant of oare.^[5] care continues Latin quālis (“of what kind”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to 1594, in the inflected form oricarele.^[4] MDA2 takes its first record from the Moldavian law code of Vasile Lupu's time.^[3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it eight times, as in Matthew 5:22.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The sense has stayed “whichever, no matter which”, with “every one” beside it.^[3][2] Scriban wrote it ori-care with a hyphen and noted that it has two stresses, so it could as well be written as two words, like ori cine and ori când.^[7] CADE also hyphenated it, beside ori-și-care.^[8] The form orișicare is recorded from 1886.^[4]

Timeline

• 1594 – oricarele, the first record.^[4]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible, eight times.^[6]
• 1886 – orișicare.^[4]
• 1939 – Scriban spells it ori-care.^[7]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. whichever, any one, no matter which: Alege oricare dintre ele. “Choose any of them.”^[2][3][1]
2. Every one, each.^[3][1]

Determiner

1. any, every: oricare om “any man”.^[2][1]

Related words

• orișicare
• oricine
• orice
• fiecare
• oarecare

Usage notes

As a pronoun the genitive-dative is oricăruia (rarely oricărui), oricăreia, oricărora.^[2] Used as an adjective it has oricărui, oricărei, oricăror.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 751
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 225
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. care
5. ^ 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. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Matthei 5:22
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 910
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 283