orice

Forms

orice (invariable)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ori + ce, “whether, or” + “what”.^[2][3][4][1] DELR gives the variants orce and the old verice, built on veri, the older form of the disjunctive ori, which it derives from an old form of vrea “to want”, meaning “you want”.^[2] It belongs with the other indefinites made on ce, such as fiece and the old fieșce “whatever”.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the word to 1632.^[2] The DLR quotes a text of that year: „Orice ne-au lăsat învățătură să cade să facem... desăvârșit” “whatever they left us as teaching, we must carry out fully”.^[5] MDA2's first record is the Moldavian Pravila.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word was both a pronoun, “anything, whatever”, and an adjective before a noun, “any”.^[5] The DLR quotes the adjectival use in the Pravila and in Neculce: the prince may not put the boyars to death „orice greșală ar face” “whatever wrong they might do”.^[5] Regional speech kept the form orce.^[3] In the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons it appears in Lex.Pet.^[6] Set phrases are în orice caz “in any case” and cu orice preț “at any price”.^[3][7]

Timeline

• 1632 – first record, in a text quoted by the DLR.^[2][5]
• 1664 – in the Slavonic–Romanian lexicon Lex.Pet.^[6]
• 1688 – 28 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. anything, whatever, no matter what: E în stare de orice.^[4][1]

Determiner

1. any, every, no matter which: orice elev “any pupil”;^[4][7][3][1] în orice caz “in any case”;^[4][7][3][1] cu orice preț “at any cost”.^[4][7][3][1]

Usage notes

Orișice is a fuller form with the same meaning.^[4] MDA2 also lists a second orice as a variant of oarece.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. orice
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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 DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 751
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. orice
6. ^ 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. orice
7. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. orice
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Kingdoms 14:6