lucru

Forms

lucru n (plural lucri or lucre, and lucruri)^[1]

• Also lucur, lucuru and luc.^[1]
• Other spellings: LÚCRU, plural lúcre and lúcrurĭ, in Papahagi's dictionary, with a variant LÚCUR, plural lúcură or, in the north, lúcără;^[2] lúcru, definite lucrul, plurals lucrurile, lucrile and lucrările, and lúcura, in Mihăileanu's Romanian-based spelling;^[3] λούκρου (lúkru), plural lúkri, and λούκουρου in Nikolaidis's Greek script;^[4] lukru in Weigand's glossary.^[5]
• Pascu records the plurals lucre and lucări, the Fărșerot plurals lucără, lucră, lucri and lucrări, and a form licur.^[6]
• Regional forms: lúcru, plural lúcre, in the dialect of Metsovo.^[7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin lucrum (“gain, profit”),^[6][2][4][1] as Meyer already noted.^[8] Wiktionary also allows a back-formation from the verb lucredz.^[1]

The word is common to the four Eastern Romance languages: Romanian lucru, Megleno-Romanian lucru and Istro-Romanian lúcru.^{[9][10][11][12]} Outside Eastern Romance the Latin noun kept the sense of gain: Old Occitan logre (“gift”), Catalan llogre, and Spanish logro (“usury”) and Portuguese logro.^[13][6]

De Vaan derives the Latin word from Proto-Italic *luklo-, dissimilated to *lukro-, and Proto-Indo-European *lh₂u-tló- (“seizure, gain”), related to Ancient Greek ἀπολαύω (apolaúō, “to enjoy”) and Gothic 𐌻𐌰𐌿𐌽 (laun, “reward”).^[14]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Kavalliotis's word list of 1770, where it translates Ancient Greek ἔργον (érgon, “work”);^[15] Meyer reads it lukru.^[15]

Semantic evolution

In Latin the noun meant material gain or profit.^[16][14] Only Eastern Romance made it the word for work: Meyer remarks that the sense is found nowhere else in Romance, and that where Greek named work after servitude, the Romanians named it after gain.^[8] REW compares the same spread of senses, business, matter and thing, in the Bulgarian and Slavic words for work.^[13] From work the Aromanian word came to mean an occupation or trade, an affair, a matter, a thing and an object;^[2][6] Papahagi also records the sense of a marvel.^[2] Mihăileanu quotes caftă-ți lucurlu (mind your own business),^[3] and in the dialect atlas aţélŭ lúcru (literally, that thing) is a name for epilepsy.^[17]

Timeline

• 1770 – lukru (Meyer's reading) “work” in Kavalliotis's word list.^[15]
• 1794–1802 – fére lùkru “without work” in Daniil's Tetraglosson.^[18]
• 1894 – lukru “work, matter” in Weigand's glossary.^[5]
• 1901 – lúcru “work, thing” in Mihăileanu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1925 – Pascu derives it from Latin lucrum.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. Work, labour; what one does to earn a living.^{[19][2][6][1]}
2. An occupation, a trade; business, an affair.^{[19][2][6][1]}
3. A matter, a question.^[2][20]
4. A thing, an object; in the plural, belongings.^{[19][2][3][1]}
5. A marvel.^[2]
6. In aţélŭ lúcru (literally, that thing): epilepsy.^[17]

Word family

• nilucru

Related words

• lucredz
• Romanian lucru

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 i Papahagi, Tache (1974), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, 2nd augmented ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 750
3. ^ a b c d Mihăileanu, Ștefan (1901), Dicționar macedo-român, București, p. 268
4. ^ a b Νικολαΐδης, Κωνσταντίνος (1909), Ετυμολογικόν λεξικόν της κουτσοβλαχικής γλώσσης, Αθήνα, p. 268
5. ^ a b Weigand, Gustav (1894), Die Aromunen: ethnographisch-philologisch-historische Untersuchungen, vol. II: Volksliteratur der Aromunen (with a glossary), Leipzig: J. A. Barth, p. 315
6. ^ a b c d e f g Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 110
7. ^ Δασούλας, Φώτης (2013), Το βλαχικό ιδίωμα του Μετσόβου, 2nd ed.
8. ^ a b Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 45
9. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 268
10. ^ Popovici, Iosif (1909), Dialectele romîne din Istria II: texte și glosar, Halle a. S., p. 121
11. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 174
12. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
13. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
14. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
15. ^ a b c Meyer, Gustav (1895), Albanesische Studien IV: Das griechisch-südrumänisch-albanesische Wörterverzeichnis des Kavalliotis, Sitzungsberichte der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, phil.-hist. Classe 132, p. 49
16. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
17. ^ a b Saramandu, Nicolae (2023), Glosar aromân, Fonetică și dialectologie XLII: 103–176, p. 142
18. ^ Leake, William Martin (1814), Researches in Greece, London (prints Daniil of Moscopole's Tetraglosson), p. 385
19. ^ a b c Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 599
20. ^ Papahagi, Pericle (1905), Basme aromâne și glosar, București: Academia Română, p. 630