rădăcină

Forms

rădăcină f (plural rădăcini)^[1] A 16th-century Gospel quoted by Tiktin spells it radicina: „nu avea radicina și se uscă” “it had no root and withered” (Matthew 13:6).^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rādīcīna, formed on Latin rādīx (“root”).^[3][4][5][1] The Late Latin word is first found in Pelagonius, in the 4th century.^[1] The Latin word comes from Proto-Indo-European *wréh₂ds.^[1][6]

The word survives in Aromanian rãdãtsinã.^[3][1] The derivative is shared with Sardinian radichina and French racine.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1550, in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has rădăcina and rădăcinilor (Psalms 47 and 51).^[7]

Semantic evolution

Beside the plant's root, the word has long meant figuratively the origin or source of something: Tiktin quotes rădăcina învățăturii e amară, dar rodul ei e dulce “the root of learning is bitter, but its fruit is sweet”.^[2][5] It also names the part of an organ fixed in the tissue (the root of a tooth, of a hair), the base of a wall or mountain, and in plant names rădăcină dulce “liquorice”.^[5][2] Grammar and mathematics gave it the senses “root of a word” and “root of a number”.^[8][5]

Timeline

• 1550 – first record, in a text in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4]
• 1570 – rădăcina in Coresi's psalter.^[7]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – some 25 occurrences in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. root: the part of a plant that fixes it in the soil and takes in nourishment; popularly, any part of a plant below ground.^[5][4][1]
2. (figurative) origin, source, cause.^[5]
3. The part by which an organ is fixed in a tissue, as the root of a tooth.^[5]
4. The lowest part of a tree trunk; the base of a wall or mountain.^[5]
5. (grammar) The root of a word;^[8][5] (mathematics) the root of a number.^[8][5]

Word family

• rădăcinos
• înrădăcina
• dezrădăcina

Related words

• Aromanian rãdãtsinã
• Latin rādīx

Usage notes

A curma răul din rădăcină is to put an end to an evil once and for all.^[5] Rădăcina-vieții is ginseng.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rădăcină
3. ^ 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. rădăcină
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 631
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 915
6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
7. ^ 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 51:5
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1092
9. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 41:5