rătăci

Forms

(present rătăcesc, third-person singular rătăcește, past participle rătăcit), 4th conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

DEX takes it inherited from Vulgar Latin *erraticiō (“to wander”), a reshaping of *errāticō, from Latin errāticus (“wandering”).^[2][1] Tiktin, Pușcariu, Candrea and the REW connect it with the Latin adjective, and the REW lists beside it Venetian radegar, Old French arage and Occitan aratge, used with a verb of going for “to wander”.^[3][4][5] Ungureanu, who also starts from the Latin verb, adds old Venetian records.^[6] The adjective is formed on errō (“to wander”).^[7]

Ciorănescu finds the Latin etymology unconvincing; he thinks the word probably expressive, as its suffix ⟨-ci⟩ suggests, and connects it with the expressive family of răcan and rătăcanie.^[4] MDA2 calls the origin uncertain and the DLR unknown.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[8] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has rătăciră “they went astray” and rătăcii “I went astray”, and Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 118:176.^[10][11][3]

Semantic evolution

Besides “to lose one's way, wander”, Old Romanian used it transitively for “to lead astray”: Neculce has „rătăcindu-l până în ziuă” “leading him astray until daybreak”.^[3] Figurative senses are “to go astray from the faith, sin”, “to make a mistake” and “to lose one's mind”.^[8] “To misplace (a thing)” and the reflexive “to end up somewhere unexpected” are modern senses.^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[8]
• 1570 – rătăciră and rătăcii in Coresi's psalter.^[10][11]
• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană (Ps 118:176).^[3]
• 1660 – rătăciră glosses a Slavonic verb for “to go astray” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – rătăcind in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 37:15).^[13]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses rătăcesc with Latin erro and aberro.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To get lost, lose one's way; to get separated from someone.^[2][8][1]
2. (intransitive) To wander about looking for the way.^[2][8]
3. (intransitive) To roam, rove;^[2][8] (reflexive) to settle in a strange place.^[2][8]
4. (transitive) To misplace, lose;^[2][1] (reflexive) to end up somewhere unexpected.^[2][1]
5. (figurative) To err, go astray; to lose one's reason.^[8][15]

Word family

• rătăcit
• rătăcire
• rătăceală
• rătăcitor

Related words

• Latin errāticus

Usage notes

MDA2 records an old spelling retăci.^[8] A rătăci drumul is “to miss one's way”.^[3][16]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 920
3. ^ 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. rătăcí
4. ^ a b 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. rătăci
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2905
6. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 350
7. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. errāticus
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 647
9. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rătăcí
10. ^ 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 57:3
11. ^ 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 118:175
12. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. rătăciră
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 37:15
14. ^ 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. 432
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 536
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 684