plecare

Forms

plecare f (plural plecări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian pleca + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.^[1][2][3][4] The verb comes from Latin plicō (“to fold, bend”).^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The roPsalt index finds plecare first in the Psaltirea Voronețeană (c. 1551–1558), at Psalm 130:3.^[6] Tiktin and MDA2 date it by the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578),^[7][3] where the word means “humility”, as Candrea's glossary of that psalter shows.^[8] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss it with Slavonic words for obedience and humility, from Mardarie's of 1649 on.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The first senses follow the old meanings of pleca “to bend”: a bending or bowing, as in plecarea capului “bowing of the head” in Cantemir; submission and obedience; humility, in the church language; and an inclination of the mind, a propensity.^[4][7] The last was common in the 18th and 19th centuries, as in are plecare spre apoplexie “he is prone to apoplexy”, and is now old-fashioned.^[4][2] Astronomy and physics used it for “inclination” and “refraction”, and old grammar for “declension”.^[4][3]

The modern sense, “departure”, follows the verb's sense “to set off”.^[4] Pontbriant's dictionary of 1862 gives départ first,^[10] and Costinescu in 1870 explains the word as setting out on a journey.^[11] The phrases punct de plecare “starting point”, gata de plecare “ready to leave” and the sports sense “start of a race” came with it.^[2][4]

Timeline

• c. 1551–1558 – plecare in the Psaltirea Voronețeană (Psalm 130:3), the first record.^[6]
• c. 1573–1578 – plecare “humility” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][8]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (Isaiah 40:15).^[12]
• 1862 – “departure” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of leaving; departure, setting off: Plecarea trenului e la ora opt. “The train leaves at eight.”^[2][1]
2. punct de plecare: a starting point, the beginning of an action;^[13] gata de plecare “ready to leave”;^[13] la plecare “on leaving”.^[2]
3. (sports) The start of a race.^[2]
4. A bending or bowing of something.^[2][3]
5. (dated) An inclination, attraction, propensity.^[2][3]
6. (archaic) Submission; humility.^[3][4]

Related words

• pleca
• aplecare

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 831
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, 415
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plecáre
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. pleca
6. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 130:3
7. ^ 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. plecáre
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 355
9. ^ 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. plecare
10. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 556
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 305
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Isaia 40:15
13. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 675