secară

Forms

secară f (uncountable)^[1] Scriban gives săcară as the Transylvanian and sacară as the Moldavian form.^[2] A record of 1588 has sacar: „1 stog de sacar” “one stack of rye”.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin secāle (“rye”).^{[4][5][6][7][3][1]} The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian sicarã, Megleno-Romanian sicară and Istro-Romanian secǫrę.^{[4][8][9][10]} Ciorănescu compares Venetian segala, Italian segale, Occitan seguel, French seigle and Catalan segle, and the Latin word also passed into Albanian thëkëre.^[4]

Romanian stresses the second syllable, like Venetian and Triestine ⟨segala⟩ and Friulian ⟨siale⟩, while Italian ⟨ségale⟩ and the French and Occitan forms go back to a Latin word stressed on the first syllable.^[11][12] The Latin word itself is probably foreign;^[13] Wiktionary suggests a loan from a language of the Balkans, and the Romance forms, with a short vowel, rule out a link with secō (“to cut”).^[1][14]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to 1420, from a document.^[5] The first Romanian text with it is the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582), which says that the wheat and the rye were not harmed, „că era sămănătură tîrdzie” “for it was a late sowing”.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

Besides the plant, the word names its grain and the flour made from it, and in the plural rye fields.^[6][5] Compounds name other plants and the ergot fungus: secară-cornută is ergot, secară-albă spelt, secară-dulce fennel.^[6][7] Regionally secară also means caraway, and the old form secăre meant anise.^[6] Romanian derivatives include secărică (caraway, and a rye brandy), secărea (a brome grass) and secăros (of wheat mixed with rye).^[4]

As a family name, Secară is formed on the common noun, and there is a place name Secara.^[1][15]

Timeline

• 1420 – Tiktin's first record, in a document.^[5]
• 1581–1582 – secara in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3][6]
• 1588 – sacar “rye” in a document.^[3]
• 1870 – Costinescu glosses secară with French seigle.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. rye: an annual cereal of the grass family with a taller straw and a rougher ear than wheat, grown for food and fodder (Secale cereale).^[7][1]
2. The grain of this plant; flour made from it: pâine de secară “rye bread”.^[6][17]
3. Secară-cornută: ergot, the fungus that attacks the ears of rye.^[7][6]
4. (regional) caraway.^[6]

Word family

• secărea
• secărică
• secăriță
• secăros

Related words

• Aromanian sicarã
• Latin secāle

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1182
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. secară
4. ^ 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. secară
5. ^ 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. secară
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 838
7. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 997
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 943
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 264
10. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 335
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7763
12. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
15. ^ Iordan, Iorgu (1983), Dicționar al numelor de familie românești, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 410
16. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 495
17. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. secară