târfă

Forms

târfă f (plural târfe)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown: DEX labels it of unknown etymology.^[2] The dictionaries compare it with tearfă “rag; loose woman”, which has the same senses.^[3][4][5] Ciorănescu calls it a doublet of the latter, which he takes as an expressive creation of the root of tărbăci “to dirty”.^[6] For that word he rejects Cihac's Russian тряпица (trjapica, “rag”) and Diculescu's Greek τέρφος (térphos), and reports Lacea's derivation from Hungarian terh (“load”).^[6] Tiktin found the relation between the two forms obscure.^[7]

Wiktionary proposes instead a loan from Ottoman Turkish طرفه (tırfa, “an unclean thing”).^[1] Scriban derived it from an unattested form with initial /s/, from stârv “carrion”.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Costinescu's Romanian–French vocabulary of 1870, which glosses it with curvă and putană, “whore”.^[9] MDA2 gives Cihac's etymological dictionary as its first record.^[3]

Semantic evolution

Two senses run side by side: in the regions, an old worn-out thing, a rag, and generally a woman of loose morals.^[3][5] The Academy dictionary quotes a folk couplet from Șezătoarea, „Să iubesc târfa din sat” “to love the village slut”, and literary uses by Gorun and Camil Petrescu.^[5][10] Regionally it is also an insult for a liar or a good-for-nothing.^[3]

Timeline

• 1870 – recorded in Costinescu's vocabulary, glossed “whore”.^[9]
• 1879 – discussed in Cihac's etymological dictionary.^[3][5]
• 1939 – Scriban's dictionary labels it vulgar.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (vulgar) A woman of loose morals; a prostitute.^[2][4][1]
2. (regional) An old, worn-out thing; a rag.^[3][5]
3. (regional, derogatory) A liar; a worthless person.^[3]

Related words

• tearfă

Usage notes

MDA2 lists a second, Banat târfă “stomach”, from Serbian trba, recorded by Lucian Costin in 1926.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1110
3. ^ 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, 1182
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. târfă
5. ^ 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. târfă
6. ^ a b 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. tearfă
7. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tearfă
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1324
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 619
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 439