secăciune

Forms

secăciune f (plural secăciuni)^[1] Old texts also have săcăciune: Ureche writes „Copacii au săcat de săcăciune” “the trees withered from the drought”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is probably inherited from Latin siccātiō (“a drying”), as DEX, Tiktin, Scriban and Șăineanu have it.^{[5][2][6][7][1]} The Latin noun is built on siccō (“to dry”) with the suffix -tiō.^[8][1] Ciorănescu reports that Candrea derived it from the Latin word.^[9]

Ciorănescu himself lists it among the derivatives of the adjective meaning “dry”, and the DLR and MDA2 analyse it as formed within the language from Romanian sec + -ăciune.^[9][3][4] Wiktionary notes that it can also be read as seca (“to dry up”) with the same suffix.^[1] Either way it belongs to the family of sec, seca and secetă “drought”, which go back to siccus and siccō.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1640, in Grigore Ureche's chronicle of Moldavia, where a great drought made the trees wither „de săcăciune”.^[2] MDA2 cites the same passage.^[4] The sense there is “drought”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “drought” the word passed to the state of anything dried out and to the excessive drying of bodies left long in sun and wind: Eminescu describes skeletons whose bones were „albite de secăciune” “bleached by dryness”.^[3][2][4] Figuratively it meant barrenness of mind or of feeling: Eminescu writes of waters lost in the sand of a social „secăciune”, and Brătescu-Voinești of the dull routine work of a judge.^[3][2] In Dosoftei's lives of the saints the old form săcăciune names a withered limb, paralysis or infirmity, a sense that did not last.^[3][2][4] Nineteenth-century dictionaries glossed it with uscăciune “dryness”, and so do Șăineanu and Scriban.^[10][7][6] Modern dictionaries label it rare.^[5][11]

Timeline

• c. 1640 – săcăciune “drought” in Grigore Ureche's chronicle, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses secăciune as “dryness, the state of what is dry”.^[10]
• 1939 – Scriban labels the word rare.^[6]
• 2009 – DEX lists it as rare, with the senses “dryness” and “drought”.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. (rare, popular) drought, a long spell without rain; compare secetă.^[5][4][3][1]
2. (rare) dryness, the state of being dried up or withered; uscăciune.^[5][11][12]
3. (obsolete) Excessive drying, dehydration of things exposed for a long time to sun and wind.^[4][3]
4. (figurative) Barrenness, aridity of thought or feeling.^[3][2]
5. (obsolete, rare, in the form săcăciune) paralysis; infirmity.^[4][3]

Related words

• sec
• seca
• secetă
• uscăciune
• Latin siccātiō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. secăciune
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. secăciune
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 838
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 997
6. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1182
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 580
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. siccātiō
9. ^ a b c 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. sec
10. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 495
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. secăciune
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 85