trișa

Forms

trișa (third-person singular present trișează, past participle trișat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French tricher (“to cheat”), a 20th-century borrowing.^{[2][3][4][1][5]}

The French verb, first Old French trichier and trechier in the 12th century, is usually traced to Vulgar Latin *triccō, an expressive variant of Latin trīcor (“to make difficulties, quibble”), from trīcae (“trifles, tricks”), a word of unknown origin.^[6][1] Wiktionary also mentions a Germanic source, comparing Middle High German trechen.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record in MDA2 and the DLR is from Vinea, in the sense “to cheat at cards”: „Joc la sigur, fără să trișez” “I play safe, without cheating”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

From cheating at cards the verb widened to any deceiving: the DLR quotes Camil Petrescu, Sebastian, Teodoreanu and Ralea for “to mislead, to deceive”, with the transitive use “to dupe someone”.^[4][2] Figurative uses such as „cu dânsa nu se poate trișa” “one cannot cheat nature” are in the DLR from 1951.^[4]

Timeline

• 12th century – Old French trichier, the source of the French verb.^[6]
• 20th century – trișa “to cheat at cards” in Vinea, the first Romanian record.^[3][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To cheat at cards or at a game.^[2][3]
2. (by extension, also transitive) To mislead, to deceive, to dupe.^[2][3]

Word family

• trișare

Related words

• înșela
• măslui

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1148
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1283
4. ^ 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. trișa
5. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert