rărunchi

Forms

rărunchi m (plural rărunchi)^[1] Old texts also have rănunchi: „Rănunchii miei încă mă învață” “my kidneys also instruct me”.^[2] Regional forms include rerunchi, renunchi and rinuchi, and regional plurals rărunchiuri and rărunți.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin rēnunculus (“little kidney”), a diminutive of rēn (“kidney”).^{[5][3][6][2][1]} DER and Tiktin reconstruct the form as *renunculus, following Pușcariu and the REW.^[7][4] Wiktionary gives *renunclus.^[1] The older form was rănunchi.^[8][1] Scriban compares the ending with genunchi, cărunt and mărunt.^[8] DER compares Sicilian ranuggiu and the Engadine nirunkel.^[7]

Ungureanu notes that renunculus is written in the Vulgate (Leviticus 3:4) and in one manuscript of Marcellus Empiricus, where the others have reniculos.^[9] DER notes that the word fell together with a homonymous plant name “buttercup”, which is from ranunculus.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, in Exodus 29:13: „cei doi rărunchi cu grăsimea a lor”, “the two kidneys with their fat”.^[4][6] MDA2 cites the same passage.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The biblical sense of the kidneys as the seat of the inner self came early: the New Testament of 1648 has „Eu sînt cela ce ispitesc rărunchii și inimile”, “I am he who searches the reins and hearts”.^[2] From it grew the sense “the depths of the body, the inner being”, as in a se bucura din rărunchi “to rejoice from the bottom of one's heart”, and by extension “the core of a thing”: rărunchii pământului “the bowels of the earth”.^[4][5][10] Dosoftei used it figuratively for one's own kin.^[2][3]

Beside the standard rinichi it is now popular and old-fashioned.^[5][7] DLRLV records the sense “kidney” in Moldavia, Banat and Transylvania, and Scriban calls it an eastern word, used in the west only figuratively.^[2][8] Creangă has the phrase a avea seu la rărunchi, “to have fat on one's kidneys”, “to be well off”.^[10]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – “the two kidneys” in the Palia de la Orăștie, the first record.^[4][6]
• 1648 – rărunchii “the reins” in the New Testament of 1648.^[2]
• 1651 – rărunchiul in a psalter of 1651.^[2]
• 1762 – boale la rărunchi “kidney diseases” in a calendar.^[2]
• 1801 – rarúnchiu glossed by Latin ren in Klein's dictionary.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. (popular) kidney; in the plural, the bowels: L-au durut rărunchii toată iarna.^[5][3][7][1]
2. (popular) The inside of the human body, seen as the seat of life and feeling; by extension, the core or middle of something.^[5][3][1]
3. (rare) The small of the back; the loins.^[3]
4. (figurative, obsolete) A kinsman, someone of one's own blood.^[3][2]

Related words

• rinichi

Usage notes

Set phrases: a avea seu la rărunchi “to be well off” and a ofta din rărunchi “to sigh from the depths of one's soul”.^[5][3] A separate regional word rărunchi, from Latin ranunculus, names several buttercups (Ranunculus) and the lesser celandine; the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 records it first.^[12][3][7]

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 Costinescu, Mariana; Georgescu, Magdalena; Zgraon, Florentina (1987), Dicționarul limbii române literare vechi (1640–1780): termeni regionali, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 1, 247
3. ^ 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, 638
4. ^ 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. rărunchi
5. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 917
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rărunchi
7. ^ a b c d e f 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. rărunchi
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1095
9. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 350
10. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 670
11. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 430
12. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rărunchi 2