șchiopăta

Forms

șchiopăta (present șchiopătez or șchioapăt, past participle șchiopătat), 1st conjugation^[1][2] Old and regional forms are schiopăta, schiopăti, șchiopeta and școpăta.^[3][4] Anton Pann writes schiopetează: „Fata mamii schiopetează, mititica, că a călcat-o pisica” “mummy's girl is limping, the little one, because the cat trod on her”.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excloppitāre, from excloppus (“lame”), from cloppus.^[3][6][2][1] Ciorănescu takes it as probably an expressive derivative of this Latin verb, after Pușcariu and Candrea.^[7] Tiktin starts instead from *excloppicāre, with ⟨t⟩ for ⟨c⟩ by distant dissimilation, and compares Occitan clopchar and French clocher (“to limp”).^[5] Ciorănescu reports this view, after Tiktin and the REW, as a change of suffix.^[7]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian shcljoapic.^[5][8][1] It is related to șchiop “lame” and șchiopa.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582), at Genesis 32:31.^[5] MDA2 dates it from Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, to walk leaning less on one leg than on the other, is said of people and animals: the Bible of 1688 has sheep and cows that go lame, „să șchiopetează”.^[5][6] A figurative sense appears early: Dosoftei's lives of the saints speak of an emperor still “limping in the faith”, that is, wavering.^[5]

In modern use something that limps does not work properly: Alecsandri has a ministry that limps when a minister is away.^[2][4] Regionally it is said of sheep with foot disease, and rarely, by confusion with scăpăta, of the sun going down.^[3][4]

Timeline

• 1581–1582 – in the Palia de la Orăștie, Genesis 32:31, the first record.^[5]
• 1688 – să șchiopetează of sheep and cows in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 33:13).^[5]
• 1801 – schiopatez in Klein's dictionary.^[9]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[6]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) To limp, walking with more weight on one leg than on the other, like a lame person.^[2][1]
2. (intransitive, figurative, familiar) Not to run normally, to falter: Planul a început să șchiopăteze.^[2][10]
3. (intransitive, figurative) To have gaps in one's knowledge of a subject.^[10]

Related words

• șchiop
• șchiopa
• Aromanian shcljoapic

Usage notes

The present is both șchioapăt and șchiopătez.^[2][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1086
3. ^ 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. 2, 1091
4. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 335
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. șchiopăta
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șchiopăta
7. ^ 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. șchiop
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 928
9. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 439
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. șchiopăta