aborda

Forms

aborda (third-person singular present abordează, past participle abordat), 1st conjugation^[1] MDA2 records an old first person abord beside the usual abordez.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French aborder (“to come alongside; to approach”), a 19th-century loan.^{[3][4][2][5][1][6]} The Marcu–Maneca dictionary of neologisms compares Italian abbordare as well.^[7] In French the verb is formed on bord (“edge, side of a ship”);^[4][8] Wiktionary analyses it as the noun with the prefix a- and the verb ending -er.^[1] DELR notes that the noun is itself a Germanic loan, related to Old English bord, Dutch boord and Middle High German bort.^[4]

An earlier adaptation, îmborda “to land”, recorded in 1805, replaced the French prefix with Romanian în-.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1830,^[6] and DELR to about 1832, in I. Golescu's Condica, where the verb already has both the nautical sense and the sense of approaching someone to talk.^[4] Among the early literary examples, Negruzzi has a peasant who greets the prince openly: „îl abordează cu piept deschis, zicându-i...” “he accosts him frankly, saying to him…”.^[9][2][10]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was nautical: a ship putting in to shore, or coming alongside another ship, often to board it in battle;^[9][2][11] MDA2 and the NODEX also record the sense “to collide with”.^[9][2][11] The figurative senses came with it from French: to go up to someone and start talking, and to take up a subject or a problem.^[3][4] Older dictionaries mark the sense “to accost someone” as a gallicism or as unusual,^[12][13] while the sense “to tackle a question, open a discussion” has become the main one; the DLRM already puts it first.^[14][5]

The derivatives were taken from French as well: abordabil in 1847, abordaj “boarding” in 1856 and inabordabil in 1858;^[4] neabordabil (1868) was formed in Romanian on the model of French inabordable.^[4]

Timeline

• 1805 – îmborda “to land”, an adaptation of the French verb.^[4]
• c. 1830 – abordá, the first record of this form.^[6]
• c. 1832 – the nautical sense and “to accost” in I. Golescu's Condica.^[4]
• 1847 – abordabil “approachable”.^[4]
• 1856 – abordaj “boarding”, first as abordagiu.^[4]
• 1858 – inabordabil “unapproachable”.^[4]
• 1872 – Negruzzi's collected works, with the sense “to accost”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, of ships) To land, to put in to shore; to come alongside another ship, usually to board it in an attack.^[5][2]
2. (intransitive, of ships) To collide with another ship or with a pier.^[11][2]
3. (transitive) To begin studying or dealing with a problem, to tackle a question, to open a discussion: Comisia a abordat ieri problema bugetului.^[5][1]
4. (transitive) To approach someone in order to talk to them, to accost.^[5][11][1]

Word family

• abordabil
• abordaj
• îmborda
• inabordabil
• neabordabil

Related words

• bord
• French aborder

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. 1, 3
3. ^ a b 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. aborda
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. aborda
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 2
6. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. abordá
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b c 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. abordá
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
11. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. aborda
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan” (1998), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, 2nd ed., București: Univers Enciclopedic, p. 2
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
14. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne