scoarță

Forms

scoarță f (plural scoarțe)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin scortea (“a leather garment”), the feminine of scorteus (“made of skin or leather”), from scortum (“skin, hide”).^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu, after Diez, Densusianu, Pușcariu and the REW, holds that it was confused with cortex (“bark”), and compares the shift from skin to bark with coajă beside cojoc.^[2]

It survives in Istro-Romanian scorțĕ.^[2][5] The Romance cognates include Italian scorza, Occitan escorsa and French écorce.^[2][4] Pușcariu noted that the derivatives meaning “loose woman” recall the sense “harlot” of the Latin noun.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1407, a Slavonic-Romanian document; a Moldavian place name formed on the word is recorded that year.^[6][7] As a common noun MDA2 first cites a translation of Herodotus of 1645.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From the bark of a tree the word spread to other hard coverings: a crust, the cover of a book, the plank sides that replace the rails of a cart, and a woven woollen rug or blanket.^[2][8] Nicolae Costin calls cinnamon scoarță dulce “sweet bark”; the usual word is the diminutive scorțișoară.^[6] Klein glosses it with Latin liber “bast”.^[9]

The phrase din scoarță în scoarță “from cover to cover” means “thoroughly”.^[8][10] Modern science added the Earth's crust and the cerebral cortex.^[8] In Maramureș and Bukovina it is the regional word for a woollen rug, in Oltenia it once meant a wallet, and in thieves' slang a pocket.^[11][2][12]

Timeline

• 1407 – a Slavonic-Romanian document, with a Moldavian place name formed on the word.^[6][7]
• 1645 – a translation of Herodotus, MDA2's first record.^[3]
• 1825 – glossed “bark, crust; bast” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. bark: the thick, hard covering of a stem or root.^[8] Obraz de scoarță “a shameless person”;^[8][3][1] (regional) mamă de scoarță “stepmother”.^[8][3][1]
2. The Earth's crust; a crust that forms on the soil after heavy rain and drought.^[8]
3. Scoarța cerebrală: the cerebral cortex.^[8]
4. The hard cover of a book or register.^[8] Din scoarță în scoarță “from cover to cover”.^[8]
5. A plank side put on a cart in place of the rails, to carry grain.^[8]
6. A rug with a warp of wool or cotton and a woollen weft.^[8][11]

Word family

• scorțar
• scorțăraș
• scorțișoară
• scorțos
• scorțoșa
• înscorțoșa
• scorțolină
• scorțucă

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. scoarță
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 812
4. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 140
5. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 340
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. scoarță
7. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. scoarță
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 991
9. ^ 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. 439
10. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1172
11. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. scoarță
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. scoarță
13. ^ 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. 622