scurge

Forms

scurge (third-person singular present scurge, past participle scurs, third-person subjunctive scurgă) 3rd conjugation^[1] The old and regional form is scure (scura): the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has „Rămășița sângelui va scură pre fundul jârtăvnicului” “the rest of the blood shall be drained out at the bottom of the altar”.^[2][3] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet it was written скурӂе.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin excurrō (“to run out”), a compound of ex- and currō (“to run”).^[4][5][3][6] The inherited form was scure; like curge from cure, it was remade with a stem in -g- on the model of verbs such as merge, whose past participle and simple past in -s- it shared.^[7][1] DEX and Wiktionary state that influence explicitly.^[4][1]

Candrea and Densusianu compare the Latin use of the verb for moisture running out of wood, and list the Romance cognates Italian scorrere, Sardinian iskurrere, Old French escourre, Catalan escorrer, Spanish escurrir and Portuguese escorrer.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, Exodus 22, on the first fruits of what flows from the press.^[2][5] MDA2 cites the same passage of the Palia.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is the trickling of a liquid, intransitive with se or transitive “to let drain, to drain to the last drop”.^[3][4] Cantemir and Miron Costin used it of blood and of the Nile flowing into the sea;^[2] Miron Costin also wrote of an army that had “drained away” overnight, losing half its men.^[2] Old texts used it for causing an abortion, and Cantemir for squeezing money out of people.^[2][3] Figurative senses followed: groups of people or vehicles moving one after another, and time passing.^[4] A-și scurge ochii means to cry one's eyes out, and a i se scurge ochii după cineva to long for someone.^[3] In slang, a se scurge is to slip away unnoticed.^[9]

Timeline

• 1581-1582 – in the Palia de la Orăștie (Exodus 22).^[2][5]
• 1688 – the old form scură in the Bucharest Bible (Leviticus 5:9).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Reflexive and transitive: to trickle or let a liquid flow out in small amounts; to drain the last drops from a container.^[4][3][1]
2. Reflexive: of fluids, to leak out of a faulty pipe; of the eyes, to burst out of their sockets.^[4]
3. Transitive: to drain or strain off the liquid from a mixture; to drain a piece of land: Am lăsat paharele să se scurgă pe tavă.^[4][1]
4. Reflexive: of waters, to flow downhill; figuratively, of crowds or vehicles, to file past one after another.^[4]
5. Reflexive, figurative: of time, to pass: Au trecut ani buni de atunci, și s-au scurs repede.^[4]

Word family

• scurgere
• scursoare
• scursură

Related words

• curge
• scure

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. scurge
3. ^ 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, 832
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 996
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scurge
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ 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. curge
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 81
9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. scurge