împiedica

Forms

împiedica (third-person singular present împiedică, past participle împiedicat, third-person subjunctive împiedice) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin impedicō (“to catch by the feet, entangle”), as DER, DEX, MDA2 and the DA agree.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Latin verb is formed on in- and pedica (“fetter, snare for the feet”), itself from pēs (“foot”).^[6][1] The DA notes that the first Romanian sense, hobbling an animal, is already the sense of the Latin verb in the Burgundian law code.^[5]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian nchiedic and Megleno-Romanian (a)mpedic.^[2] Its Romance cognates include Italian impedicare, Occitan empedegar, French empêcher and Portuguese empelgar.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the old form împiedeca and its past forms împiedecași and împiedecați.^[8][9] Tiktin cites the Psaltirea Scheiană, and MDA2 dates its first record to Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense came first: to tie an animal's legs, especially a horse's, so that it can walk but not run away.^[10][5] From there the verb was used of braking a cart wheel with a chain or a shoe, which gave the saying împiedică la deal și despiedică la vale “he brakes uphill and unbrakes downhill”, said of someone who does everything the wrong way round.^[10][4] The general sense “to hinder, prevent” grew out of these; the DA compares the same development in French empêcher.^[5]

The reflexive a se împiedica “to trip, stumble” is the commonest sense today and comes first in DEX.^[3][10] Phrases built on it include a i se împiedica limba “to slur one's words” and a se împiedica la vorbă “to stammer”.^[3][4] A Transylvanian homonym from Rășinari, “to fold cloth lengthwise and sew it”, was first recorded in 1915; the DA explains it as a separate formation with another suffix.^[4][5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – împiedeca, împiedecași in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[8][9]
• 1570 – împiedecați in Coresi's Psalter.^[11]
• 1581 – Coresi's Carte de învățătură, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1688 – împiedecând “tying up” Isaac in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]
• 1915 – the Rășinari sense “to fold and sew cloth lengthwise”.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To trip or stumble over something or someone in one's way (and fall): S-a împiedicat de o rădăcină.^[3][1]
2. (reflexive, figurative) To keep running into something or someone annoying.^[3][4]
3. (transitive) To hobble an animal, tying its legs so it cannot run off.^[3][4]
4. (transitive) To brake the wheels of a cart; to put the safety catch on a firearm.^[3][4]
5. (transitive, figurative) To hinder, prevent or stop someone or something.^[3][1]

Word family

• împiedicare
• împiedicat
• împiedicătură
• împiedicător
• neîmpiedicat

Related words

• piedică
• despiedica
• Aromanian nchiedic

Usage notes

DEX gives the regional variant împiedeca, the usual form in the old texts.^[3][10] Its opposite is a despiedica “to unhobble, take the brake off”.^[5][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c 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. împiedica
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 533
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1191
5. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. împiedeca
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4296
8. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 17:43
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 139:5
10. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împiedeca
11. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 19:9