secetă

Forms

secetă f (plural secete)^[1] MDA2 records the regional variant săcetă and the old forms secete and săcită.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *siccita (“dryness, drought”), a form of siccitās (“dryness, drought”) made on its nominative.^[3][4][1][5] Pușcariu compared iuventa beside iuventās (“youth”), and the REW lists the word among the reflexes of the Latin noun.^[5][6] Scriban derives it directly from the Latin nominative, without a Vulgar Latin form, and notes that bunătate and sănătate were formed on the accusative instead.^[7] The Latin noun is formed on siccus (“dry”), the source of Romanian sec.^[8][9] The word survives south of the Danube as Aromanian seatsitã.^[10][1]

Ciorănescu doubts this etymology, since the accusative would have given ⟨*secetate⟩.^[9] He derives the noun instead from a lost ⟨*secet⟩, formed on seca “to dry up” as tunet is formed on tuna and urlet on urla.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1604.^[4] MDA2's first record is Grigore Ureche's chronicle of Moldavia.^[2] A text quoted by Tiktin has „Odinioară fu secetă în Antiohia” “once there was a drought in Antioch”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The word names a lack of rain and the dry weather that follows, with its damage to crops and springs.^[4][11] It is also used figuratively for any dearth: Scriban gives secetă de caractere “a dearth of men of character”, and Șăineanu secetă de idei “a dearth of ideas”.^[7][12]

The adjective secetos “dry, droughty” is formed on it, and the DLR records a regional secetaș “thirsty person”.^[9][13] Secetă is also a surname, recorded in the 17th century.^[14][1] Ciorănescu reports that a Hungarian dialect word for drought, szécita, was borrowed from Romanian.^[9]

Timeline

• 1604 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[4]
• c. 1642–1647 – in Grigore Ureche's chronicle.^[2]
• 17th century – Gavril Secetă, a personal name.^[14]
• 1801 – séceta “drought”, glossed with Latin siccitas, in Klein's dictionary.^[15]
• 1825 – secetă in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed siccitas, ariditas.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. drought: a lack of moisture in the soil and the air, below what plants need to grow normally.^[3][2][1]
2. A spell of such weather; dry weather.^[3][2]
3. (rare) A lack of water, dryness.^[2][11]
4. (figurative) A dearth of something: secetă de idei.^[12][11]

Word family

• secetos

Related words

• sec
• seca
• Aromanian seatsitã

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 840
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 998
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. secetă
5. ^ a b Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 142
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7896
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1182
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e 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. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 918
11. ^ 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, 86
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 580
13. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. secetaș
14. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. secetă
15. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 441
16. ^ 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. 629