sărac

Forms

sărac m or n (feminine singular săracă, masculine plural săraci, feminine/neuter plural sărace)^[1] The oldest texts write sirac: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has „Tată siracilor, giudeț văduolor, Dumnedzeu” “father of the orphans, judge of the widows, is God” (Psalm 67:6).^[2][3] MDA2 lists the variants sireac (popular), serac, sirac (old) and the regional sălac, săleac and sileac.^[3] Scriban calls sireacu a jocular form.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic сиракъ (sirakŭ, “orphan; poor”), the source DER, MDA2, the DLR and Scriban name.^[5][3][2][4] DER cites Miklosich, Cihac and Philippide for it and compares Bulgarian сирак (sirak) and Serbo-Croatian sirak “orphan”.^[5] Wiktionary and the Bulgarian etymological dictionary take it instead from Bulgarian or Serbo-Croatian; the BER lists the Romanian word and its variant sireac among the borrowings from Bulgarian.^[1][6] The Slavic word is Proto-Slavic *sirākъ, formed with a suffix on *sirъ (“bereft, orphaned”).^[6] The DLR refers to Pușcariu's study of phonological laws (1921–1922) for the change of ⟨si-⟩ to ⟨să-⟩.^[2]

Romanian passed the word on to the Ruthenian (Ukrainian) dialects, according to Miklosich, cited by DER.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where sirac still means “orphan”: “father of the orphans, judge of the widows”.^[3][2] The same sense is in the Codicele Voronețean, which tells believers to visit „săracii și văduole întru scârbia lor” “the orphans and widows in their affliction”.^[2] Tiktin's earliest date, 1525, is a document.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The Slavonic word meant both “orphan” and “poor”, and old Romanian used both: a text of 1652 speaks of sons left săraci “orphaned” and their mother a widow, and the Bible of 1688 has „Toată văduva și săracul să nu le faceți rău” “ye shall not afflict any widow or orphan”.^[2][8] MDA2 also records the old senses “widowed” and the phrase a rămâne sărac de cineva “to lose someone dear”.^[3] Klein's dictionary of 1801 has both, sarac “poor” and sarac de parintzi “orphaned”, and so has the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825.^[9][10] MDA2 labels “orphan” as now regional.^[3]

“Poor, needy” became the main sense, with the noun “poor person, beggar” and transfers to poor soil, poor countries, and a poor style.^[11][4] As a word of pity (săracul de el “the poor man”) it also turned affectionate in folk songs, and its exclamatory use săracul de mine “poor me” was shortened to ăracan, ără, îră.^[7][5] Graur explained aracan as such a clipped form.^[5] The Gospel phrase sărac cu duhul “poor in spirit” means “humble” for Scriban, who calls the reading “stupid” a mistranslation;^[4][11] DEX gives “dull-witted” as its sense.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – siracilor “of the orphans” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1525 – the record Tiktin cites, a document.^[7]
• c. 1563–1583 – săracii “the orphans” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1649 – sărac glosses Slavonic нищий “poor, beggar” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – more than eighty occurrences in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 1712 – Iraca baba, a name formed on the exclamation îraca.^[14]
• 1801 – Sarác “poor”, sarác de parintzi “orphaned” in Klein's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. poor: without wealth, lacking the material goods needed to live; sărman, nevoiaș.^[11] Sărac și curat is said of those who would rather stay poor than get rich dishonestly.^[11][1]
2. (of things) Showing poverty; sărăcăcios.^[11]
3. (of countries, towns) Lacking resources, inhabited by people of little means;^[11][7] (of soil) barren, not productive.^[11][7]
4. (usually with de) Lacking, without, or (with în) having too little of something, scant, insufficient.^[11] Of a language or style, poor in means of expression.^[11] Sărac cu duhul means dull-witted.^[11]
5. (of light) Weak, dim;^[11] (of plants) stunted, feeble.^[11]
6. Modest, plain, without splendour; ordinary, mediocre.^[11]
7. (expressing pity, often affectionately) Poor, wretched, pitiable: Săracul copil a plâns toată noaptea.^[11][7]
8. (archaic and regional) orphaned.^[3][2]

Noun

1. A poor person; a cerșetor, beggar.^[11][1]
2. (archaic and regional) An orphan;^[3] (old) a widower or widow.^[3]

Word family

• sărăcăcios
• sărăci
• sărăcie
• sărăcilă
• sărăcime

Related words

• sărman
• Old Church Slavonic сиракъ (sirakŭ)

Usage notes

Steaua săracului “the poor man's star” is a folk name of the Pole Star.^[3] The proverb La omul sărac nici boii nu trag “at the poor man's even the oxen won't pull” says that the unlucky fail at everything.^[15][7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sărac
3. ^ 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, 775
4. ^ a b c d e f Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1161
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. sărac
6. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 6, 687
7. ^ 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. sărác
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 22:22
9. ^ a b 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. 436
10. ^ 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. 634
11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 980
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. sărac
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ieșirea 22:25
14. ^ Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. sărac
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. sărac