urzică

Forms

urzică f (plural urzici)^[1] Dosoftei writes urdzâci in his Lives of the Saints: „Mearsă de să tăvăli prin spini și prin urdzâci” “he went and rolled among thorns and nettles”.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *urdīca, a variant of Latin urtīca (“nettle”).^[3][1][4] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian urdzãcã, Megleno-Romanian urzică and Istro-Romanian urzikę.^[5][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian ortica, Occitan ortiga, Catalan ortiga, Spanish ortiga, Portuguese ortiga and French ortie.^[5][8]

The change of /t/ to /d/, Romanian /z/ before /i/, is irregular, but some southern Italian and Aragonese dialect forms also point to a Latin form with /d/.^[5] Meyer-Lübke explained it by contamination with Ancient Greek ἀδίκη (adíkē, “nettle”), as did Pușcariu and the REW.^[5][4][8] He later proposed Latin ārdeō (“to burn”) instead, which Tiktin also considers and Ciorănescu finds less likely.^[5][2] Densusianu suggested a fusion with ōrdior, the source of urzi, which Pușcariu thought unlikely in meaning and the REW rejects.^[4][8] Scriban names all three influences.^[9]

The Latin word has no sure etymology; the Romans connected it with ūrō (“to burn”), a folk etymology.^[10][1] The medical term urticarie is a separate neologism, from French urticaire.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in a Slavonic–Romanian document of 1491.^[2] MDA2's first record in a Romanian text is in the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582).^[11] A 16th-century gospel book renders Matthew 7:16 as „Culegeți de pre ... urzici smochine”, “Do men gather figs of nettles”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word names the stinging nettle, Urtica dioica, and the small nettle, Urtica urens, and in compounds many plants that look like them, such as urzică-moartă, the dead-nettle (Lamium).^[11][2][3] Cloth was woven from its fibre, and the name passed to that cloth, used for sacks.^[3][12] Urzică-de-mare is the sea anemone, whose tentacles sting.^[3] In Moldavia urzica is also a round dance and its tune.^[11]

The derivative urzicar names a place full of nettles, popularly a child born out of wedlock, a small bird of nettle thickets and the caterpillar of the small tortoiseshell; in western Transylvania it is the shroud of the dead.^[13] Since the early 2020s urzică has also been slang for a gullible person.^[1]

Timeline

• 1491 – first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[2]
• 1581–1582 – urzică in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[11]
• 1595 – the diminutive urzicuță.^[2]
• 1688 – urzică in the Bucharest Bible (Job 31:40).^[14]
• 1825 – urzică with Latin urtica and German Brennessel in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[15]
• 2020s – the slang sense “gullible person”.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. nettle: the genus Urtica, herbs whose stems and leaves bear stinging hairs, used for fibre, in medicine and as food; a plant of this genus.^[3][11][1] Urzică-moartă: dead-nettle.^[3]
2. Coarse cloth woven from nettle fibre, used for sacks.^[3]
3. Urzică-de-mare: a sea anemone with stinging tentacles.^[3]
4. (Moldavia) A folk round dance and its tune.^[11]
5. (slang) A sucker, a gullible person.^[1]

Word family

• urzica
• urzicar
• urzicea
• urzicuță

Related words

• urticarie
• Aromanian urdzãcã
• Latin urtīca

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. urzică
3. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1177
4. ^ a b c Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 172
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. urzică
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1088
7. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 163
8. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 9090
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1385
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1396
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 601
13. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urzicar
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iov 31:40
15. ^ 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. 739