împresura

Forms

împresura (third-person singular present împresoară, past participle împresurat, third-person subjunctive împresoare), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Tiktin, the DA and MDA2 see it as inherited from Vulgar Latin *pressūrō (“to press”), a verb from pressūra (“pressure, pressing”), with the prefix în-; the view goes back to Cipariu and is followed by Pușcariu.^[2][3][4][5] The Latin noun is formed on premō (“to press”).^[6]

Candrea–Densusianu proposed *impressōriō, from pressōrium (“press”), and compared Old French pressoirier;^[7][8] DEX accepts this as probable.^[7][8] Körting started from *impressulō.^[5][9] Ciorănescu thinks it more likely a Romanian formation on the plural of an unrecorded noun from pressus (“pressure”), in the way îngândura was made on the plural of gând.^[5] Graur, too, lists it as formed in Romanian.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561, at Luke 8:42, where the crowd presses round Jesus.^[2] The 1688 Bible has the same use at Mark 5:24: „Și după el mergea mulțime multă și-l împresura pre el.”^[2][11] MDA2 dates it to Varlaam's homily book of 1643.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The old senses kept the physical idea of pressing: to press down, to crush under a weight, to smother a child sleeping in the same bed (a case in the old law codes), to cover with earth.^[3][2] In Varlaam (1643) the thorns grow up and choke the seed.^[3][2] The sense “to press in on, attack from all sides” led to the military “to besiege, encircle”, frequent in the chronicles from Ureche on.^[2][3] In the old legal language it also meant to seize property unlawfully;^[2] Tiktin thinks this sense came under the influence of împrejura.^[2] Modern Romanian keeps “to surround” and “to encircle in order to capture”, and the figurative use of thoughts or memories that crowd in on someone.^[8][3][12]

Timeline

• 1561 – Coresi's Tetraevanghel, Luke 8:42, Tiktin's first record.^[2]
• 1589 – împresurară in Coresi's Psalter.^[13]
• 1642 – “to seize unlawfully” in a book of teachings.^[2]
• 1643 – Varlaam's homily book, MDA2's first record.^[4][3]
• 1688 – împresura and împresoară in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To surround on all sides; to frame; to embrace with the arms.^[8][4][1]
2. (transitive) To encircle in order to capture; to besiege: Oastea a împresurat cetatea.^[8][14][1]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To dispossess someone unlawfully; to usurp.^[8][4]

Word family

• împresurător
• împresurătură
• despresura

Related words

• împrejura
• Latin pressūra

Usage notes

The present is împresor, împresoară; an older and Moldavian present împresur is recorded too.^[8][2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. împresura
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. împresura
4. ^ a b c d e 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 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. împresura
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. pressūra
7. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 138
8. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 535
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 310
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 75
11. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mk 5:24
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 579
13. ^ 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 58:3
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. împresura