șchiopa

Forms

șchiopa (present șchiopez, regionally șchiop; past participle șchiopat), 1st conjugation^[1][2] The 16th-century psalters spell it șchiupa: șchiupară “they limped” in Psalm 17:49 of the Psaltirea Scheiană and of Coresi's psalters of 1577 and 1589.^[3][4] Other old and regional forms are schiopa, șchiopi and școpa.^[2][5]

Etymology

It is either inherited from Late Latin *excloppāre (“to lame”) or a Romanian formation on șchiop “lame”.^[6][2][1] The Latin etymology, given by Tiktin and Candrea, is the one the DLR adopts.^[4][7][8] Ciorănescu lists the verb among the derivatives of the adjective.^[8] The Latin form would come from cloppus (“lame”), of imitative origin, with ex-.^[1][8] Tiktin compares French écloper (“to lame”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The oldest form is șchiupară “they limped”, in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578) and Coresi's psalter of 1577, at Psalm 17:49.^[3][4] MDA2 dates it from the Bucharest Bible of 1688.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb means to become lame, and transitively to lame someone: the Bible of 1688 says of someone that he fell and was lamed, „au căzut și s-au șchiopat”.^[4][7][9] The old Pravila of Govora bars a priest from serving if he goes blind or lame.^[4][7] In the psalm verse the sense is figurative: the strangers “limped away from their paths”.^[4]

Regionally, above all in Transylvania, it also means to walk with a limp, like șchiopăta.^[7][2]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – șchiupară in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalm 17:49, the first record.^[3]
• 1577 – the same form in Coresi's psalter.^[3]
• 1688 – s-au șchiopat in the Bucharest Bible (2 Samuel 4:4), MDA2's first record.^[2][9]
• 1862 – Pontbriant records the sense “to limp”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To make someone lame or to become lame.^[2][7][10]
2. (intransitive, popular) To become lame: Calul a șchiopat de un picior.^[6][1]
3. (intransitive, regional) To limp, șchiopăta.^[6][2]

Related words

• șchiop
• șchiopăta

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1091
3. ^ 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 17:49
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. șchiopa
5. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 335
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1086
7. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șchiopa
8. ^ 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
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 2 Sam 4:4
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. șchiopa