ridiche

Forms

ridiche f (plural ridichi)^[1] Old texts have rădiche: „să n-aib' parte de frati-meu de usturoi... şi de soru-me de rădiche” “may I have no share of my brother the garlic … and my sister the radish” (1773).^[2][3] Tiktin records the regional forms râdiche in Moldavia, ridichie in Oltenia and rădiclă in Banat.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rādīcula (“little root; radish”), a diminutive of rādīx (“root”).^[5][1][6][3] Wiktionary notes the early loss of the Latin /u/.^[1] The Latin word also gave Italian radicchio and northern Italian forms meaning “radish”.^[7][5] Ciorănescu adds that the Italian word passed into Modern Greek ραδίκι (radíki), which passed on into Albanian radhiqe “chicory”.^[5][1]

Candrea took the Romanian word from Modern Greek, and Miklosich from Old Church Slavonic ръдъкꙑ (rŭdŭky, “lettuce”);^[8] Ciorănescu finds both less likely.^[5] Graur lists it with rădăcină and ridica among the Romanian descendants of the Latin family of the word for “root”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1400.^[3] In Romanian texts it appears in the Latin–Romanian glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis (c. 1650–1700) and in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of about 1660.^[4][9]

Semantic evolution

The word names the plant and its edible root, with varieties named by colour and season: ridiche de lună the small spring radish, ridiche neagră or de iarnă the black winter radish.^[6][4][3] The colloquial a freca cuiva ridichea “to rub someone's radish” means to give someone a beating, and then a dressing-down;^[9] Ispirescu uses it of Stephen the Great dealing with an army from Transylvania.^[3][6] MDA2 also records figurative uses for a frail child and, in schoolboy slang, a pupil of the lowest classes.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the first record, as Tiktin dates it.^[3]
• c. 1650-1700 – ridiche in the glossary of the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[4][2]
• c. 1660 – a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon glosses a Slavonic word for “radish” with it.^[9]
• 1773 – rădiche in a text quoted by Gaster.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The radish (Raphanus sativus), a vegetable of the cabbage family with deeply cut leaves and a fleshy round or long root.^[6][1]
2. The edible root of this plant.^[6][4]
3. ridiche sălbatică: wild radish (Raphanus raphanistrum), a weed of cultivated fields.^[6]
4. (colloquial) a freca cuiva ridichea: to thrash someone; to scold someone severely.^[6][4]

Word family

• ridichioară

Related words

• rădăcină
• ridica
• Latin rādīx

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ridiche
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ridiche
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 711
5. ^ 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. ridiche
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 955
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6996
8. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. s.v. ridiche
9. ^ a b c 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. ridiche