purcede

Forms

purcede (first-person singular present purced, past participle purces, third-person subjunctive purceadă) 3rd conjugation^[1][2] The old language also has a first-person present purcedez, and regional forms include pruceda and purcege.^[3] The present wavers between purced, purcez and purceg under the influence of the second person purcezi.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin prōcēdō (“to go forward, advance”).^{[4][3][2][5][6][1]} Ciorănescu also cites Pușcariu and the REW, and notes after Rosetti that of the Romance languages only Romanian kept the verb.^[4][1] The Latin verb is formed on cēdō (“to go”) with the prefix prō-.^[7]

Candrea–Densusianu explain the present participle purcegând by analogy with verbs such as alege, and think the old reflexive of drege, “to make one's way”, may have influenced it.^[6] Romanian later borrowed the same Latin verb through French as proceda.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, at Psalm 21.^[3][8][9] The sense in the old texts is “to set out, depart”: Coresi writes „ieșim și purceasem” “we went out and set off”, and the Palia of 1581 has „purcease derept aceaia Izdrail” “so Israel set out”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, “to set out on a journey”, is common in the chronicles: Miron Costin and Neculce use it of princes and armies setting out.^[5][9] It was used transitively too, “to send someone on his way”, and a purcede către Domnul “to set out to the Lord” meant to die.^[9][3] An old sense “to march against an enemy” belongs to the same military use.^[3]

From the motion sense came “to begin, break out”, of rain, wind or noises, and “to start on an action, proceed”.^[2][10] The abstract sense “to come from, originate”, as thoughts proceed from ignorance, is found in the old texts as well.^[9][2] Today the word is popular or archaic in style.^[10][2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – purcede in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][8]
• 1581 – purcease “set out” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[5]
• 1688 – purces and purcezând in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]
• 1862 – purcede “to proceed, come from, result” in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (popular) To set out, leave, start on a journey.^[2][13][1]
2. Of things and phenomena, to begin, break out: purcese ploaia “the rain set in”.^[2][10]
3. To start on an action; to proceed, act in a certain way.^[2][13]
4. Of actions and states, to originate, arise, come from.^[2][13][1]
5. (old) To send someone on his way.^[4][9]

Word family

• purces
• purcezător
• purcedere

Related words

• proceda
• Latin prōcēdō

Usage notes

The expression a purcede grea (or îngreunată) means “to become pregnant”.^[2][13] The simple past is purcesei and the participle purces.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 899
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 602
4. ^ a b c d 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. purcede
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. purcede
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 239
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. procedo
8. ^ 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 21:10
9. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. purcede
10. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 631
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 11:2
12. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 598
13. ^ 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. purcede