urca

Forms

urca (third-person singular present urcă, past participle urcat, third-person subjunctive urce), first conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is not certain.^[2] The usual explanation makes it inherited from Vulgar Latin *orĭcō (“to rise”), a derivative of orior (“to rise, appear”).^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu lists Pușcariu, Tiktin, the REW, Candrea and Rosetti for this view.^[2] The REW leaves open whether the base is ōra (“shore”) or the verb meaning "to rise".^[5] Tiktin also considers ⟨ōra⟩, so that the verb would first have meant "to climb onto the bank".^[6] Ciorănescu finds this, and Pascu's derivation from Ancient Greek ὄρος (óros, “mountain”), less likely.^[2] He adds that Cipriani's *ortĭō, from ortus (“risen”), could support the same Latin root.^[2] He rejects Candrea's comparison with Serbo-Croatian nukati (“to urge on”).^[2]

The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *h₃er- (“to stir, rise”).^[1][7] Ciorănescu compares the Romanian verb aburca.^[2] Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929 still called the origin unknown.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1620, in Moxa's chronicle.^[6] There a mountain is described as higher than all other hills, so that no one can climb to its top: „nime nu i se poate urca în vârh”.^[4] A Romanian translation of the Teachings of Neagoe Basarab, from about 1650, tells how a man found a tree and took hold of it to climb into it.^[6] MDA2 gives a first record from before 1654.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is moving upwards on foot, on a slope or a ladder.^[4][3] The transitive use "to carry or drive up" appears in folk poetry and in Eminescu: a woman is carried up onto the scaffolding, and pyramids raise their tops to the sky.^[6] Roads and paths "climb" when they slope upwards, and the moon and the stars "climb" in the sky.^[3][9]

From height the verb passed to quantity: prices, rents and tributes are raised, and a sum "climbs to" a total.^[6][10] Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary of 1869 already gives urca for raising a price.^[11] Set phrases include a urca pe tron "to ascend the throne" and a i se urca la cap "to go to someone's head".^[9] MDA2 also records the joke a urca Dealul Mitropoliei "to climb Metropolitan Hill", for asking for a divorce.^[3]

Timeline

• 1620 – urca “to climb” in Moxa's chronicle, the first record.^[6][4]
• c. 1650 – se urcă “climbs” (a tree) in the Romanian translation of Neagoe Basarab's Teachings.^[6]
• before 1654 – the first record in MDA2.^[3]
• 1869 – urca “to raise (a price)” in Barițiu's Hungarian–Romanian dictionary.^[11]
• 1929 – Șăineanu still calls its origin unknown.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To climb, to go up from a lower place to a higher one (also reflexive and transitive): Am urcat dealul până la stână.^[9][3][1]
2. Of a road or a path: to slope upwards.^[9]
3. Of plants: to climb along a support or a wall.^[9]
4. To get on or into something higher, such as a horse, a vehicle or a throne: a se urca în tren “to get on the train”.^[9][1]
5. To rise into the air.^[9]
6. Of temperature or pressure: to go up.^[9]
7. Of numbers, prices or sums: to increase or amount to (reflexive), and transitively to raise: a urca prețurile “to raise prices”.^[9][6]

Word family

• urcat
• urcător
• urcuș
• urcare

Related words

• aburca
• Latin orior

Usage notes

A i se urca băutura la cap means “to get drunk”, and a i se urca la cap “to become conceited”.^[9] A regional variant begins with h-.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g 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. urca
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, 1384
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urca
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6098
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. urcá
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 680
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1174
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. urca
11. ^ a b Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 174