împrejura

Forms

împrejura (third-person singular present împrejură, past participle împrejurat), 1st conjugation^[1] The old texts write împregiura: „Nu mă tem de mii de oameni cari m-au împregiurat pe mine” “I am not afraid of the thousands of people who have surrounded me” (the Psalter of 1651).^[2] Tiktin also records a present împrejurez.^[3]

Etymology

It is a verb from Romanian împrejur (“around”), formed like împreuna beside împreună.^[4][3][5][1] Ciorănescu traces the adverb to jur through the old form prejur, made with the preposition pre; the prefix în- is a later addition.^[4]

The DA, Densusianu, Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu derive the verb instead from Vulgar Latin *pergȳrō (“to go around”), with the prefix added in Romanian.^[2][4][6] Candrea–Densusianu set up a form with the prefix, *inpergȳrō, and cite the simple verb from the Peregrinatio Silviae and the Mulomedicina Chironis.^[6] Wiktionary analyses it as per (“through, around”) and gȳrō (“to turn”).^[1] DEX gives both explanations.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Eustratie's Pravila of 1632.^[3] MDA2 starts from a psalter of 1651, where the verb means “to surround”.^[8][2] The sense “to wrap, gird” is in the New Testament of 1648: „Cu aceastea lanțure sânt împregiurat” “I am bound with these chains”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The main sense is to stand or lie all around something, to surround or enclose it: Negruzzi writes of the hills that surround a small town.^[2][3] From it came the uses “to go round” (a wedding party walking three times round the table) and “to fence in”, recorded in Banat and near Năsăud.^[2] The second sense, “to wrap around, gird”, survives in folk use: Creangă's Oșlobanu ties a bundle of wood with his belt.^[2][3][9] The literary language has replaced the verb with înconjura, and DEX labels it old and regional.^[2][7]

Timeline

• 1632 – Eustratie's Pravila, Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 1648 – împregiurat “bound round” in the New Testament.^[2]
• 1651 – împregiurat “surrounded” in a psalter.^[8][2]
• 1688 – six forms of the verb in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, dated and regional) To go all around; to surround or enclose on all sides.^[7][8][1]
2. (transitive, regional) To tie something with a cord passed around it; to gird: și-a împrejurat mijlocul cu brâul.^[7][8]

Related words

• împrejur
• jur
• împresura

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. împrejura
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. împrejura
4. ^ 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. împrejur
5. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. împrejura
6. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 152
7. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 535
8. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1195
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 579
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Kgs 7:23