aciua

Forms

aciua (third-person singular present aciuează, past participle aciuat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The origin of the word is uncertain.^[2][3] DELR's probable explanation is that it is inherited from Vulgar Latin *accellāre, a verb formed on cella (“storeroom, small chamber”), as A. Philippide proposed and the DA accepted.^[2][4] The DA also allowed that cēlō (“to hide”) may have been reshaped as *cellāre under the influence of the noun.^[2] On this view the forms with ⟨u⟩ come from the stem-stressed forms of the verb and those with ⟨ol⟩ from the forms stressed on the ending.^[2] The REW lists the same etymon, with parallels in Italian dialects and Spanish.^[2][3]

Ciorănescu rejects the *accellāre etymology as difficult, following Graur.^[3] He derives the word from Latin cieō (“to set in motion, summon”), Late Latin cīre, compare acciō (“to summon, fetch”), with a later change of conjugation and /i/ becoming /iu/ as in bucium.^[3] He takes it for a herding word, used first of calling the cattle together to drive them to shelter from bad weather.^[3][1] Candrea and Densusianu proposed Vulgar Latin *accubīliāre, from cubīle (“bed, lair”), which Ciorănescu and Wiktionary find impossible on phonetic grounds.^[3][5][1] DEX 2009 and MDA2 still give that etymon.^[6][7] Hasdeu thought of a Latin verb for “to rest, be quiet”, and Cihac of an Old Church Slavonic verb meaning “to flee”.^[2][3] Tiktin found none of the proposals convincing.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1581, in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[2][8] There Christ is said to have had nowhere to lay his head: „Ce n-au avut unde nici capul să-și aciuo”.^[8] MDA2 points to a Coresi text quoted by Hasdeu.^[7] The derivative aciuător “refuge” is older: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century has it as aciuotoriu.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant both “to give shelter” and, reflexively, “to take shelter, find refuge”.^[2][8] In Moxa's chronicle the animals take refuge with Noah in the ark.^[8] DELR and MDA2 also record the senses “to rest” and “to calm down”.^[2][7] In modern use it is a popular word for settling, often only for a while, somewhere or near someone, much like pripăși and oploși.^[6]

The word has many regional variants, among them aciuia, aciui, aciola and, in Vrancea, aciora and aciura.^[2] The form aciola, with the noun acioală “shelter, shed”, is limited to Muntenia, and Ciorănescu thinks it was reshaped by some contamination or analogy.^[3][2] Tiktin takes aciola as a back-formation from acioală.^[8]

Timeline

• early 16th century – aciuotoriu “refuge” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2]
• 1581 – aciua in Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură, the first record of the verb.^[2][8]
• 1688 – the verb in the Bucharest Bible (Sirach 14:26).^[9]
• 1780–1801 – aciuială “calming; shelter”, in a variant form, in Micu.^[2]
• 1885 – acioală “shelter, shed”.^[2]
• 1886 – aciuaș “shelter” in Sbiera's tales.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive, popular) To find refuge or shelter somewhere or with someone, to settle there for a time.^[6][7][1]
2. (transitive) To give someone shelter, to take in.^[6][10][8]
3. (dated) To rest, to calm down.^[7][2]

Word family

• acioală
• aciuaș
• aciuător
• aciuială

Usage notes

The present is aciuez.^[6] DEX 2009 also lists the variants aciuia and aciui.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r 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. aciua
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. aciua
4. ^ 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. aciua
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 7
7. ^ 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, 9
8. ^ 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. aciua
9. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Sir 14:26
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. aciua