ucigaș

Forms

ucigaș m or n (feminine singular ucigașă, masculine plural ucigași, feminine/neuter plural ucigașe)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian ucig + -aș, on ⟨ucig⟩, the popular present of the verb.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} DER lists it among the verb's derivatives, and explains ⟨ucig⟩ beside ⟨ucid⟩ by analogy with verbs that have the same kind of participle, such as încinge (⟨încins⟩) and stinge (⟨stins⟩).^[6] The verb itself continues Latin occīdō (“to kill”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1620, in Moxa.^[5] MDA2's first record is in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, where the emperor sends his army to destroy „ucigașii aceia” “those murderers”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The 1688 Bible uses it for the slayer in the laws on the cities of refuge: „ca să fugă acolo ucigașul” “that the slayer may flee there”.^[5][7] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons pair it with the Slavonic words for a fratricide and for the slayers of Christ.^[8] In the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 it renders Latin occisor, interfector and homicida.^[9]

Used as an adjective it means “deadly”, also figuratively, as in Eminescu's „ucigașei sale guri” “of her deadly mouth”.^[10][4] In folk speech Ucigașul is a name of the Devil, used to avoid his own, and in Muntenia it can name a wild beast, above all the wolf.^[3][10]

Timeline

• 1620 – the first record, in Moxa.^[5]
• 1643 – ucigașii in Varlaam's Cazania.^[3][4]
• 1660 – in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, for “fratricide”.^[8]
• 1688 – ucigașul “the slayer” in the Bucharest Bible.^[7]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, for Latin homicida.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. A killer, murderer: a person who has killed or tried to kill someone; asasin: Poliția l-a prins pe ucigaș.^[2][3][1]
2. (regional, euphemistic) The Devil.^[3][10]
3. (Muntenia) A wild beast, especially the wolf.^[3]

Adjective

1. deadly: that causes or can cause someone's death: un virus ucigaș.^[2][3]

Related words

• ucide
• ucigător
• sinucigaș

Usage notes

The feminine is ucigașă, plural ucigași, ucigașe.^[2] Old and rare variants are ocigaș and ucizaș.^[4][3]

References

1. ^ a b c 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. 1166
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1357
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. ucigaș
5. ^ 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. ucigaș
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. ucide
7. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Numerii 35:11
8. ^ a b 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. ucigaș
9. ^ a b 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. 730
10. ^ a b c Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. ucigaș