secure

Forms

secure f (plural securi)^[1] Older and popular forms are săcure and, in Wallachia, secură.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin secūris (“axe”), a noun related to secō (“to cut”).^{[4][2][1][5][6]} It survives in all four branches: Aromanian secure, Megleno-Romanian sicuri and Istro-Romanian secure.^[4][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Dalmatian sčor, Italian scure, Spanish segur and Portuguese segure.^[4][1][9]

Ciorănescu thinks that Modern Greek τσεκούρι (tsekoúri) may come from Romanian;^[1] Wiktionary takes it instead from Byzantine Greek τσεκούριον (tsekoúrion), from Koine σεκούριον (sekoúrion), itself from the Latin word.^[4][1] Candrea saw the diminutive securice as the source of Hungarian szekerce, but the Hungarian etymological dictionaries reject this and take it from a South Slavic diminutive such as Serbo-Croatian sjekirica.^[4][10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1509, in the Slavonic documents.^[12] The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520) has the older form săcure: „Cu săcurile tăiară ușile lui” “With axes they cut down its doors”.^[13][2]

Semantic evolution

The old texts write săcure, which DLR marks as old and regional.^[13][2] The axe was a tool for felling, splitting and hewing wood and, in the past, a weapon of war and of execution by beheading.^[13][14] Regionally the word also names similar tools: an implement for breaking ice, a cooper's knife, a pointed hoe.^[2] Scriban notes that it was the old and Oltenian word for an axe, while in his time it meant a smaller axe, for kindling.^[3] Folk phrases include a fi cioplit numai cu securea “to be rough-hewn, uncouth”.^[2]

Timeline

• 1509 – the first record in Tiktin.^[12]
• c. 1500–1520 – săcurile in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[13][2]
• c. 1573–1578 – securi in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 73:7).^[15]
• 1648 – săcurea in the New Testament of Bălgrad.^[13]
• 1649 – săcure in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[16]
• 1688 – săcure in the Bucharest Bible (Ezekiel 9:2).^[17]
• 1753 – securea, with the modern vowel, in a document.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. An axe: a steel head with a cutting edge and a short wooden handle, used to fell trees and to split or hew wood, and in the past as a weapon.^[14][1]
2. A hatchet, a smaller axe.^[2][3]
3. (historical) A battle-axe.^[18][1]

Word family

• securice

Related words

• topor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 844
3. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1184
4. ^ 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. secure
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 1494
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 148
8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7775
10. ^ Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 702
11. ^ Gerstner, Károly (ed.) (2006–), Új magyar etimológiai szótár, Budapest: Nyelvtudományi Kutatóközpont; online at uesz.nytud.hu
12. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. secure
13. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. secure
14. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 999
15. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 73:7
16. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. săcure
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ezek 9:2
18. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. secure