scurgere

Forms

scurgere f (plural scurgeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian scurge + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.^[2][3][4][1] The verb comes from excurrō (“to run out”).^[3][1] Wiktionary takes it through an older scure, remade on the pattern of verbs such as merge, as curge was from cure.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and the DLR give as the first record Ștefan Vasilie Episcupescu's Practica doctorului de casă of 1846, which lists among passing complaints „dorul gurii cu scurgere de bale” “sore mouth with a running of spittle”.^[3][4] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 already has scurgere as the long infinitive of the verb.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the flow of a liquid the noun passed to the place where water drains away, a drain or gutter, and to the discharge of the body in popular medicine.^[2][4] In the regional speech the DLR records, scurgere de sânge is menstruation, and the word also names diseases with a discharge, such as leucorrhoea.^[4] Writers used it for the passing of time, as in the flow of the generations.^[6][4] In Moldova it can mean a ditch along a fence.^[7]

Timeline

• 1846 – the noun, in Episcupescu's medical handbook.^[3][4]
• 1870 – “decanting, outflow” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[8]
• 1886 – glossed with German Abfluß in Barcianu.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of draining or flowing out, of a liquid trickling away;^[2][6] (figurative) the passing of time.^[2][6]
2. A place, natural or built, where surplus water runs off; a drain.^[2][10]
3. (popular) A pathological discharge of the body.^[2][4]

Related words

• curge
• scursură

Usage notes

The DLR records an old form scurere from Budai-Deleanu's lexicon.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 996
3. ^ a b c d 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 Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. scurgere
5. ^ 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. 625
6. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 77
7. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău
8. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 493
9. ^ Barcianu, Sava Popovici (1886), Dicționar român-germân și germân-român, revised by D. P. Barcianu, part I: român-germân, Sibiu: Institut tipografic, p. 568
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional