rugă

Forms

rugă f (plural rugi)^[1]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian ruga (“to ask, to pray”), a noun made from the verb.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the derivatives of the verb, which is inherited from Latin rogō (“to ask”).^[6] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) took it instead from Latin rogātiō by loss of the ending.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3] Tiktin cites the Codicele Voronețean, the Acts of the Apostles (18:18), and Coresi's Gospel book, where Jesus goes into a desert place „și acia rugă făcea” “and prayed there” (Mark 1:35).^[8]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the word means both “prayer” and “request”: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „dă celui prea înalt… rugile tale” “give the Most High your vows” (Psalm 49:15), and Tiktin also gives the sense “vow”.^[8] Nicolae Costin writes that the boyars “gave their plea” to the emperor, „dat-au boierii ruga lor”.^[2] From the 19th century the sense “prayer” became mainly poetic and clerical: „A mea rugă-i ascultată”, Vlahuță writes.^[8][1]

In Transylvania and Banat the word took material senses: a wayside cross or shrine where people pray, a chapel or church, and the patronal feast of a church with its fair.^[3][8][5][1] The Lexicon de la Buda already gives “cross” beside “prayer”.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – rugă in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 18:18).^[8]
• 1570 – rugă in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 21:27).^[9]
• 1688 – rugile tale “thy vows” in the Bucharest Bible (Psalm 49:15).^[8]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives “prayer” and “cross”.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. A request, an entreaty.^[4][3]
2. A prayer.^[4][3]
3. (regional) A wayside cross, a shrine.^[4][8]
4. (regional, Transylvania, Banat) The patronal feast of a church, with its village fair.^[3][5][1]

Related words

• ruga
• rugăciune
• rugăminte

Usage notes

The plural is rugi; old texts also have ruge.^[3] Set phrases include a face rugă or a sta la rugă “to pray”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. rugă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 733
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 966
5. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
6. ^ 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. ruga
7. ^ a b c 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. 596
8. ^ 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. rugă
9. ^ 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 21:27