risca

Forms

risca (third-person singular present riscă, past participle riscat, third-person subjunctive riște), 1st conjugation^[1] An obsolete variant riscarisi is recorded beside it.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French risquer (“to risk”), one of the French verbs that entered Romanian in the 19th century.^{[3][4][2][5][1]} Marcu and Maneca compare Italian rischiare as well.^[6] The French verb is formed risque (“risk”) with the verb ending -er.^[1]

The noun risc is a separate loan from the French noun, and the adjective riscant was taken from German riskant.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1824.^[2] MDA2 gives Heliade Rădulescu's translation of Byron's Don Juan (1847) as its first record.^[3] In 1848 Negulici listed it among the new words, with the sense “to put oneself in a position to lose, to put oneself in danger”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the French sense of putting one's life, honour or goods in danger, and it is often followed by a second verb: riscă să piardă “he risks losing”.^[4][5] Used without an object it means to take part in an uncertain venture and trust to luck.^[4][6]

The reflexive a se risca meant “to dare, to venture” in the 19th century.^[2][3] Tiktin quotes Constantin Negruzzi: „nime nu s-ar fi riscat a merge pe jos singur pe uliți după ce înnopta” “no one would have dared to walk alone in the streets after nightfall”.^[2] Dictionaries now label this use obsolete.^[4][8]

Timeline

• c. 1824 – the first record.^[2]
• 1847 – in Heliade Rădulescu's translation of Don Juan.^[3]
• 1848 – riscare in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[7]
• 1893 – in Damé's French dictionary, marked as a neologism.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To risk or endanger one's life, honour or property; to expose oneself to a possible danger: Și-a riscat viața pentru prietenul lui.^[4][3]
2. (intransitive) To take part in an uncertain undertaking; to act on chance.^[4][10]
3. (reflexive, obsolete) To dare, to venture.^[4][3]

Related words

• risc
• riscant

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. riscá
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 714
4. ^ 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. 957
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. riscá
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. risca
7. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. riscare
8. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 753
9. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. risca
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. risca