seceră

Forms

seceră f (plural seceri)^[1] The popular variant secere is common in literature: Coșbuc pictures girls walking cu secerea-n brâu “with the sickle at the belt”.^[2][3] An older form secire occurs in Miron Costin's chronicle in the sense “harvest time”: „aproape de secire” “close to the harvest”.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin sicilis (“sickle”), in the form with two short vowels, ⟨sĭcĭlis⟩, that the Romance languages presuppose.^{[5][6][3][4][1]} The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian seațiră (spelled seatsirã in the Aromanian standard) and Megleno-Romanian sęțări.^[5][7][8] Its Romance relatives include Venetian sezola, Dalmatian sekla and Friulian sezule.^[5][9]

The OLD calls its origin doubtful and compares sīca (“dagger”), a view Wiktionary also attributes to de Vaan; others have linked it to secō (“to cut”).^[10][1] The quantity of its first two vowels is not certain in Latin itself, and the short vowels are inferred from the Romance words.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 and Tiktin date the first record to about 1550, in a text published in the second volume of Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[6][4] The sense is the reaping tool.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Beside the tool, the noun came to mean the reaping itself, the harvest and the harvest season; those senses are now old or popular.^[5][6][3] The curved blade gave its name to the crescent moon, and in regional speech to a group of seven stars in Orion.^[6][5] Fishermen use the word for a hook used under the ice, and in Moldova it can name the dorsal fin of the perch.^[6][11]

Romanian built a family on the word: the verb secera, secerător “reaper” with secerătoare “reaping machine”, seceriș “harvest”, secerar “August” and secerea as a plant name (Gladiolus imbricatus).^[5][6]

Timeline

• c. 1550 – first record, in a text of Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[6][4]
• c. 1675 – secire “harvest time” in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[4]
• 1688 – secera in the Bucharest Bible (Revelation 14:16).^[12]
• 1862 – secere in Pontbriant's dictionary, the base of the verb secera.^[13]
• 1870 – seceră glossed as French faucille by Costinescu.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. A sickle: a hand tool with a narrow curved steel blade, toothed on the inner edge and set in a wooden handle, used to cut grain.^[3][6][1]
2. (popular) Reaping, the harvest.^[3][6]
3. (dated) The harvest season.^[5][6]
4. The crescent moon, in its first or last quarter.^[6][5]
5. (regional) A part of the constellation Orion, seven stars set in an arc.^[6]
6. (regional, fishing) A hook for fishing under the ice; in Moldova, the dorsal fin of the perch.^[6][11]

Word family

• secera
• secerător
• secerătură
• secerar
• seceriș
• secerea

Related words

• Aromanian seatsirã
• Latin sicilis

Usage notes

The plural is seceri;^[6][3] secere is a rare plural and also the popular singular.^[6][3] The verb “to reap” is secera.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 85
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 997
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. seceră
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. seceră
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 839
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 937
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 918
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7900
10. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. sīcīlis
11. ^ a b Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. s.v. seceră
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Apocalipsis 14:16
13. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 665
14. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 496