policar

Forms

policar m (plural policari)^[1]

Etymology

It is a 19th-century learned borrowed from Latin pollicāris (“of the thumb”), an adjective formed on pollex (“thumb”).^[2][3][4][5] Șăineanu also called it a neologism after the Latin word.^[6] Philippide held that it belonged to the inherited stock;^[2] Ciorănescu accepts this only for Aromanian.^[2] Wiktionary, by contrast, gives the Romanian word as inherited.^[1]

The inherited forms south of the Danube are Aromanian pulicar and Megleno-Romanian pulicar, beside Albanian pulqer.^[7][8][1] The REW lists Romance cognates such as Spanish pulgar and Portuguese polegar.^[9][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in P. Vasici-Ungurean's Antropologhia (Buda, 1830), in the sense “thumb”: „Degetele sînt alcătuite din trei dăraburi de oase, afară de policari, care numai două încheieturi are” “The fingers are made of three pieces of bone, except the thumbs, which have only two joints”.^[3][10]

Semantic evolution

The same book of 1830 already uses the word for a measure of length, an inch of about 3 cm, a sense now obsolete.^[10][3] Codru-Drăgușanu measured oats as “five policari high”, and Șăineanu divided the foot into twelve policari.^[10][6] The sense “thumb” stayed in the standard language and in literature, as in Hogaș.^[10] By analogy the word names the hind toe of a bird.^[3] Wiktionary records a variant puricar, which may come from confusion with purica.^[1]

Timeline

• 1830 – policar “thumb” and “inch” in Vasici's Antropologhia, the first record.^[3][10]
• 1870 – Cihac lists it with the Romance words for “thumb”.^[11]
• 1886 – Barcianu glosses it as German Daumen and Zoll.^[12]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the thumb and the measure of twelve to the foot.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The thumb; the thickest finger of the hand; police.^[4][3][1]
2. (obsolete) A unit of length of about 3 cm; an inch.^[3][10]
3. The hind toe of a bird.^[3]

Related words

• police
• Aromanian pulicar

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. policar
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, 450
4. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 843
5. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc
7. ^ a b Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 148
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 239
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6638
10. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. policar
11. ^ Cihac, A. de (1870), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane I: Éléments latins comparés avec les autres langues romanes, Frankfurt am Main, p. 212
12. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic