tocilar

Forms

tocilar m (plural tocilari)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian tocilă + -ar, the agent suffix added to the word for a grindstone.^[2][3][4][1] tocilă is from Old Church Slavonic точило (točilo, “whetstone”) in MDA2's view, while DEX derives it from Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian.^[5][2] Scriban compared a Bulgarian word of the same form.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates it to 1841, in Poenaru's dictionary, as a knife grinder.^[4] MDA2's first record is Costinescu's dictionary of 1870, which spells it tocillarŭ and glosses it with French rémouleur.^[3][7] The grindstone itself, tocilă, is recorded from about 1670.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is the craftsman who sharpens knives, razors and scissors on a grindstone.^[7][2] Scriban noted that in Romania this trade was usually in the hands of Italians.^[6]

In school slang the word came to mean a pupil who learns by rote, a swot: Tiktin records it in the schoolboys' argot.^[4] The image is that of grinding: Scriban glosses the pupil as one who “grinds” his lessons, o tocește.^[6] MDA2 separates a pupil who learns mechanically from one who simply studies a lot, both familiar and disparaging.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1670 – tocilă “grindstone”.^[8]
• 1841 – tocilar “knife grinder” in Poenaru's dictionary.^[4]
• 1870 – tocillarŭ in Costinescu's dictionary.^[7][3]
• 1939 – Scriban records the ironic sense of a pupil who studies too much.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. A knife grinder: a person who sharpens cutting tools on a grindstone.^[2][3]
2. (colloquial, disparaging) a pupil or student who learns lessons by heart, mechanically: a crammer.^[2][3][1]
3. (colloquial) a pupil who studies very hard, a nerd.^[3][1]

Related words

• tocilă
• toci

Usage notes

The feminine is tocilară, used in the school sense.^[2] A synonym is bucher.^[2][9]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1129
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1233
4. ^ 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. tocilar
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1234
6. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1327
7. ^ a b c Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 621
8. ^ 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. tocilă
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 448