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porcărie

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word porcărie

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1823 Bobb's dictionary More words from the 19th century
Ultimate origin
Latin porcus
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin porcus
Italian porco
Romanian porc
Romanian porcărie
French porc
From the same root
Latin porcīnus ← porcus
Romanian porcar ← porc
Romanian porcoi ← porc

Forms

porcărie f (plural porcării)[1] A regional variant is purcărie.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian porc + -ărie, with the collective suffix.[2][3][4][1] Tiktin also refers it to the word for pig.[5] That base continues Latin porcus (“pig”).[1]

Related languages made parallel formations on their word for pig: Aromanian purcãrii, Italian porcheria, Catalan porqueria, Spanish porquería and Portuguese porcaria.[1][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Bobb's dictionary of 1823, and MDA2's the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825.[5][2] The first senses were concrete: a herd of pigs, a pigsty, pork products.[5][4]

Semantic evolution

From the herd or the sty the word passed to filth and a filthy place, then to a coarse, indecent or dishonest act or remark.[4][2] Barcianu's dictionary of 1886 already glosses it with German “Schweinerei”.[7] In the 20th century it came to mean a shoddy piece of work or a worthless thing, and it is often put before a noun with de: porcăria asta de târg “this wretched town”.[4][3] The sense “pork products” survives regionally.[3]

Timeline

  • 1823 – in Bobb's dictionary, the first record.[5]
  • 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.[2]
  • 1865 – Pisone glosses it as a pigsty.[8]
  • 1886 – Barcianu glosses it “Schweinerei”, a dirty trick.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A pig farm;[3][2] (popular) a herd of pigs;[3][2] (regional) a pigsty.[3][2]
  2. (regional, collective) pork products.[3]
  3. (figurative, colloquial) Great filth; a dirty place or thing; an indecent, coarse or dishonest act or remark.[3][9][1]
  4. (colloquial) A shoddy piece of work, rubbish.[3][2][1]

Usage notes

A regional homograph porcărie, formed on porcări with the suffix -ie, means the same as porcăreală.[2][4] Regional dictionaries also record the word for a swineherd's trade and for a role in a ball game.[10]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 471
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 850
  4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. porcărie
  5. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. porcăríe
  6. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 868
  7. ^ a b Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 490
  8. ^ Pisone, Domițian (1865), Dictionariu românescu, latinescu, germanescu și francescu, lucrat după sistemul Lexiconului de Buda, București: Typografia Ioann Weiss, p. 303
  9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. porcărie
  10. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. porcărie
Cite this entry

“Porcărie.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/porc%C4%83rie. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

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