vâlcea

Forms

vâlcea f (plural vâlcele)^[1] The older form is vălcea, as in a document of 1669: „la dial, pe o vălcea” “uphill, along a little valley”.^[2][3] Regional variants include vălceauă and vălceoă.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *vallicella, a diminutive equivalent to Late Latin vallicula (“small valley”), according to DEX, MDA2, the DLR and Wiktionary.^[5][4][2][1] Ciorănescu, following Pușcariu and Iordan, treats it instead as a diminutive of vale “valley” with the suffix -cea, and names Candrea for the Latin vallicella.^[6] Tiktin lists it in his article on the noun for valley, from Latin vallis (“valley”).^[3] The Late Latin noun is itself a diminutive of the Latin word for valley.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DLR and MDA2 date the first record to 1519, from Mihăilă's dictionary of Old Romanian.^[2][4] Old texts write vălcea;^[2] Neculce has vălce „Au vădzut coborându-să într-o vălce vo trii sute căzaci” “they saw some three hundred Cossacks coming down into a little valley”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a narrow, shallow valley with a nearly flat floor and gentle slopes.^[5][4] From the valley the word passed to the small stream that runs along it, the bed of such a stream, a mill race, a low-lying plain and a road through a hollow.^[5][4] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) gives both senses, Latin vallicula and “brook”.^[8]

Timeline

• 1519 – first record.^[2][4]
• c. 1660–1680 – „Din dealure și din vălcele” “from hills and little valleys”, in a text of Gaster's chrestomathy.^[2]
• 1669 – vălcea in a boundary document.^[2]
• 1825 – vâlcea “little valley; brook” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A small, narrow, shallow valley with gentle slopes; a dell or dale; vâlcică.^[5][4][1]
2. A small brook running along such a valley.^[5][4]

Related words

• vale
• vâlcică
• Latin vallis

Usage notes

The county name Vâlcea is stressed on the first syllable, unlike the common noun, which is stressed on the last;^[1] Wiktionary therefore doubts that the name comes from it and mentions a Slavic word for “wolf” as an alternative.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. vâlcea
3. ^ 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. vale
4. ^ 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, 1431
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1187
6. ^ 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. vale
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ 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. 743