rață

Forms

rață f (plural rațe, masculine equivalent rățoi)^[1] Regional forms are reață (Banat) and nață (Muntenia), and beside the plural rațe the plurals rățe, rețe and răți occur.^[2][3] Creangă and Sadoveanu use the plural rățe.^[4]

Etymology

The origin is disputed.^[1][5] Ciorănescu takes it from South Slavic: borrowed from Serbo-Croatian raca, Slovene raca, Bulgarian ряца (rjaca).^[5][1] MDA2 calls the source unknown and compares Albanian rosë and the Serbo-Croatian word;^[3][6] DEX gives the same comparison.^[3][6] Wiktionary considers it possibly a substrate word akin to the Albanian one, or a South Slavic loan.^[1]

Ciorănescu finds a Dacian origin (Hasdeu) or an Albanian one (Philippide) improbable.^[5] Tiktin rejects a source Vulgar Latin *anatea, from Latin anas, despite the doubtful regional form nață; Șăineanu had proposed it.^[2][7]

Similar words for the duck are spread across the region: Hungarian réce, which Hungarian sources explain as an imitation of the duck's call, formed in Hungarian, and Romani ratsoy, Friulian raze and the dialectal German Rätsche.^[8][9][1] The Albanian word is itself disputed: Vasmer took it from Serbo-Croatian, while Barić connected it with the Greek and Latin names of the duck, such as Ancient Greek νῆσσα (nêssa).^[10] South of the Danube, Aromanian rosă is from Albanian.^[11][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1487; the same source has the personal name Popuțea Rățoi.^[2] Personal names formed on the word are common in the old documents, such as Rățiu in Oltenia in 1579.^[12] A Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660 uses it to gloss the Slavonic words for the wild duck.^[13] MDA2's first record is Dimitrie Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică of 1704.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Besides the bird, wild and domestic, the word names objects of a similar shape: a hospital urinal, and in Moldova a toy windmill of reeds shaped like a duckling.^[6][14] It is also the name of a folk dance and of its tune.^[6][1] The duck's waddle gives a umbla ca o rață “to walk with a rolling gait”.^[6][4] Its quacking explains Scriban's a arunca cuiva o rață în traistă “to give someone a remark that compromises them”;^[15][3] MDA2 records a prinde pe cineva cu rața în traistă “to catch someone red-handed”.^[15][3] Regionally the word names other birds and fish, such as the kingfisher (rață-de-tău), the crane and the pike.^[3]

Timeline

• 1487 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[2]
• 1579 – the personal name Rățiu in Oltenia.^[12]
• c. 1660 – rață glossing the Slavonic words for “wild duck” in a lexicon.^[13]
• 1704 – rață in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[3]
• 1825 – rață, with rață sălbatică “wild duck”, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. duck: several species of wild and domestic swimming birds with a broad flat bill, a short body and short legs set far back (Anas); rață sălbatică the mallard, rață domestică the domestic duck.^[6][1]
2. A urinal for bedridden patients.^[6][1]
3. (with the article, rața) A Romanian folk dance, and the tune it is danced to.^[6][1]

Word family

• rățoi
• rățoială
• rățar
• rățișoară
• rățoaică
• rățucă
• rățușcă
• rățușoară

Related words

• Aromanian rosă
• Albanian rosë

Usage notes

The male is rățoi.^[1][5] The saying ba e rață, ba e rățoi is said of people who argue stubbornly.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. rață
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 627
4. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 657
5. ^ a b c d e 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. rață
6. ^ 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. 913
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 536
8. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 356
9. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu, p. s.v. réce
10. ^ Çabej, Eqrem (2002), Studime etimologjike në fushë të shqipes VI (N–Rr), Tiranë, p. 302
11. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 908
12. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. rață
13. ^ a b 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. rață
14. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. rață
15. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1089
16. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 577