zgâria

Forms

a zgâria (third-person singular present zgârie, past participle zgâriat); first conjugation.^[1][2] Old texts have many variants: zgărâia and zdărâia in Dosoftei, zderia, and dăria in Moxa.^[3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed: DEX and MDA2 take it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *scaberāre, from scaber (“rough, scabby”).^[2][4][1] Ciorănescu prefers Latin excoriō (“to flay”), from corium (“hide, skin”), comparing Italian scuoiato (“flayed”), and finds the other proposals insufficient.^[5] Wiktionary gives both.^[1] DLR only compares Albanian shqerr.^[6]

Tiktin traced the forms with /zd/ to Old Church Slavonic драти (drati, “to tear”) and its prefixed form; he found the forms with /zg/ obscure, perhaps influenced by scărmăna or imitative like German kratzen.^[3] He rejected Vulgar Latin *excariō from caries (“decay”) on grounds of meaning, and listed the other proposals: scarīficō (“to scarify”), a form of scabō (“to scratch”) and the Vulgar Latin verb above.^[3][5] The verb survives as Megleno-Romanian zgair, which Capidan derived from the Latin verb meaning “to rot” that Tiktin rejected.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Moxa's chronicle of 1620, in the form dăria.^[3] MDA2 dates it from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686): „îl zgărâiară cu zgăreturi” “they scratched him with scratches”.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is to wound the skin lightly with nails, claws or a sharp point; from it came marking any surface with a hard point.^[2][4] A text of 1704 says that the hens have scratched the cocks, and one of 1716 tells of a king scratched by a Turk's spear beside his nose.^[6] Figurative senses followed: a sound that grates on the ear, a taste or smell that stings.^[2][3] MDA2 adds scratching the ground, of birds and animals, and writing hard or badly.^[4] The compounds zgârie-brânză “miser” and zgârie-nori “skyscraper” are built on the verb.^[2][1]

Timeline

• 1620 – dăria in Moxa's chronicle, the first record.^[3]
• 1682–1686 – zgărâiară in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[4][6]
• 1704 – zgărăiat in a text of that year.^[6]
• 1716 – zgăriat in a historical account.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To scratch the skin with nails, claws or a sharp object: Pisica l-a zgâriat pe mână.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To leave a shallow mark on a surface with something hard and sharp; to scrape: a zgâria pământul “to plough shallowly”, a zgâria hârtia “to write poor literature”.^[2][1]
3. (figurative) To grate on the ear; to sting the taste or smell.^[2]

Word family

• zgârie-nori
• zgârie-brânză

Usage notes

The proverb mâța blândă zgârie rău “the gentle cat scratches hard” is said of hypocrites.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 1224
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. zgâria
4. ^ 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, 1568
5. ^ 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. zgâria
6. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. zgâria
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 338
8. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 955