îndupleca

Forms

Verb: third-person singular present înduplecă, past participle înduplecat, third-person subjunctive înduplece; 1st conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian în- + dupleca, the old verb dupleca meaning “to bend, fold”.^[2][3][1] Ciorănescu treats it as a variant of that verb, which is from Latin duplicō (“to double; to bend, fold over”), and notes that the prefixed form became far more common than the plain one, which is now obsolete.^[4] DELR also records the view of Densusianu that the word continues a Latin *induplicāre, comparing Gallo-Italian dialect forms of Sicily.^[5] The DA adds that the Romanian verb could also continue a Latin *dēplicāre, a compound of plicō (“to fold”), with /e/ becoming /u/ before a labial.^[6][5]

The Latin verb is formed on duplex (“double, twofold”).^[1][5] The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian nduplic.^[4][5][1] Ciorănescu compares Spanish doblegar.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the literal sense “to bend”.^[7] DELR's first date is the Palia de la Orăștie of 1581–1582, where the participle renders Hungarian “double”: peșterea înduplecată “the cave with two openings”.^[5] MDA2 dates it from Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686).^[3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense was physical, “to bend, bow”: Nicolae Costin's chronicle, quoted by Tiktin, advises „să înduplece nuiaua, iară să nu o frângă” “to bend the rod but not break it”, and the Bible of 1688 has duplecându-se în genunchi “bowing on their knees”.^[7] Tiktin explains the modern sense as “to bend someone's mind”, hence to persuade or bring someone round.^[7] Old texts also used it for “to subdue”, “to convert”, “to avoid” and “to double”; in Transylvania it meant “to hem”.^[3][5] Văcărescu's grammar of 1787 used the verbal noun for “declension”, after Italian and Latin models.^[5] Its participle became the adjective neînduplecat “unyielding”.^[4][5] Today the reflexive means “to relent, take pity”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[7]
• 1581-1582 – the participle înduplecată “double” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[5]
• 1682 – înduplecare “persuasion; bending” in Dosoftei.^[5]
• 1688 – six occurrences of the infinitive in the Bucharest Bible.^[8]
• 1787 – înduplecare as a grammatical term “declension” in Văcărescu's grammar.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To persuade someone to give in, yield or agree; to bring someone to do something: Abia l-am înduplecat să rămână.^[2][3][1]
2. (reflexive) To relent, to show mercy or kindness.^[2][1]
3. (transitive, obsolete) To bend, to bow; to bring to submission.^[3][1]

Word family

• înduplecare
• înduplecat
• înduplecător
• înduplecătură
• neînduplecat

Related words

• pleca
• duplica
• dupleca
• Aromanian nduplic

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 545
3. ^ 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, 1224
4. ^ a b c d 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. dupleca
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. duplecá
6. ^ 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. îndupleca
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. înduplecá
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Isaiah 58:5