Three Romanian etymologies: cruța , fierăstrău and răsfăța

This paper proposes new etymologies for three Romanian words. Romanian cruța ‘to spare (one’s life), have mercy on’ has been traditionally linked with Albanian kursej ‘to spare (money, effort, etc.); to save up, to put aside’, but the metathesis remains unexplained. We instead derive it from Latin cruciāre ‘to crucify, torture’, with a semantic reversal comparable to Romanian feri ‘to fend, dodge, avoid, be wary’ < Latin ferīre ‘to strike, hit’. A semantically closer reflex of cruciāre is preserved in Aromanian cruțescu ‘to tremble with fear, to shiver’. Romanian fierăstrău ‘saw (tool)’ is generally considered a loan from Hungarian fűrész id., but the formal difficulties are significant, and the Hungarian word itself has so far lacked an etymology. We derive fierăstrău from * ferrester ‘of iron’ < Latin ferrum ‘iron’ + - ester (adjective-forming), with subsequent suffixation with Romanian - ău (augmentative) and influence from Romanian fier ‘iron’. Hungarian fűrész continues a lost Romanian * fieres form anterior to suffixation with - ău , with a - stru > - s shift recorded in Banat Romanian. Finally, we derive Romanian răsfăța ‘to pamper, spoil’ from * re-ex-vitiāre ‘to vitiate, spoil again’ < Latin vitiāre ‘to vitiate, spoil’, with a sv > sf shift well attested in Romanian.