scărmăna

Forms

scărmăna (third-person singular present scarmănă, past participle scărmănat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excarminō (“to card out”), formed on carminō (“to card”) with ex-, according to Ciorănescu, Tiktin, MDA2, the REW and Candrea–Densusianu.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Latin verb comes from carmen (“card for wool”).^[1] DEX alone gives the word as of unknown origin.^[7]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian scarmin and Megleno-Romanian rascarmin.^[2][8][9] The Romance cognates include Spanish escarmenar and dialect forms in Calabria, Parma and Sicily.^[2][6] Italian scarmigliare (“to tousle”) goes back to the same Latin verb crossed with scapigliare.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary of about 1670.^[3] MDA2 dates the word to Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints, 1682–1686.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is to pull wool or cotton apart and clean it, which extends to plucking down from feathers for pillows.^[7][4] Jocular and figurative uses followed: to pull someone's hair, to give someone a beating, and in a milder sense to scnew.^[4][3] Șăineanu also has “to empty”, of someone's purse.^[11] Volceanov records the scnewing and beating senses in slang.^[12]

Romanian formed scărmănător, scărmănătoare, scărmănătură and scărmăneală “thrashing”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1670 – the first record, in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis glossary.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – in Dosoftei's Lives of the Saints.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To pull apart and loosen raw wool or other fibres by hand or machine, to clean and fluff them, to card.^[7][4]
2. To pluck the down from feathers.^[7][13]
3. (figurative, colloquial) To beat or scnew someone.^[7][12]

Word family

• scărmănător
• scărmănătură
• scărmăneală
• scărmănare

Usage notes

Regional variants are scălmăna, scălmâna and scărmâna.^[4][6]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. scărmăna
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scărmăna
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, 796
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2958
6. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. scărmăna
7. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 986
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 246
10. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 572
12. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. scărmăna
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 43