împotrivă

Forms

împotrivă (adverb; preposition in the articled form împotriva)^[1] The variant împrotivă appears in the 16th-century psalters: the Psaltirea Scheiană has it in Psalm 75:7, where Coresi's psalter of 1570 has împotrivă.^[2] The DEX now labels it regional.^[3]

Etymology

It is a compound from Romanian în + potrivă, the preposition “in” and the noun “match, equal”.^[1][3][4][5] Scriban held that it should be written ⟨în potrivă⟩.^[6]

potrivă is from Old Church Slavonic противъ (protivŭ, “against”).^[7][5] The DA notes that the Slavic languages use the same word as an adverb and preposition, as in Bulgarian and Russian.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in Acts 26:9.^[8] It is also in Coresi's psalter of 1570 and, by MDA2, in Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1574.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the first sense as “like, on a par with”, from the noun potrivă “match”, and the old texts also use it for “compared with”, “instead of” and “according to”;^[1][4] MDA2 labels all these obsolete.^[1][4] A spatial sense “facing, opposite” follows, as in malul de-mpotrivă “the opposite bank”; the sense now usual, “against”, grew out of it.^[8][1] The Bible of 1688 says of a ship tossed by the waves that the wind was împotrivă “against” it.^[8]

When the noun is followed by a genitive or a possessive, it takes the article and acts as a preposition: împotriva mea “against me”.^[1] An old adjectival use “hostile” is also recorded.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[8]
• 1570 – împotrivă in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 75:7).^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – împrotivă in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1574 – in Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[4]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – the wind împotrivă in the Bucharest Bible (Matthew 14:24).^[8]

Meanings

Adverb

1. against, contrary;^[3][10][5] a vota împotrivă “to vote against”.^[3][10][5]
2. (rare) In front, opposite.^[3][5]

Related words

• împotriva
• împotrivi
• potrivă
• dimpotrivă
• deopotrivă

Usage notes

A fi (or a sta, a se pune) împotrivă means “to oppose, resist”, and a zice (or a răspunde) împotrivă “to contradict”.^[3] The articled form împotriva is the usual preposition “against”, with the genitive.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. împotrivă
2. ^ a b c d 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 75:7
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 534
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. 1, 1195
5. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 674
7. ^ 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. potrivă
8. ^ 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. împotrivă
9. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. împotrivă
10. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. împotrivă