acoperi

Forms

acoperi (third-person singular present acoperă, past participle acoperit, third-person subjunctive acopere) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin cooperiō (“to cover completely”), formed con- and operiō (“to cover”), a verb that survives throughout Romance.^[2][3][4][5] Ciorănescu files the word under the shorter coperi, and notes that the form with ⟨a-⟩ is at least as common.^[3] The initial ⟨a-⟩ is explained in two ways: Pușcariu, Candrea and Densusianu, Papahagi and DEX see the Latin prefix ad-, in a Vulgar Latin compound *accoperiō, while the DA and Ciorănescu take it as a prothetic ⟨a-⟩ added to the shorter verb.^[2][3][6][1] Tiktin explains the stress of ⟨acóper⟩ “I cover”: it spread from the second and third persons singular, where the Latin verb already stressed that syllable.^[7]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian acoapir, Megleno-Romanian cupirés and Istro-Romanian coperi.^[3][2] Its Romance cognates include Italian coprire, Occitan cobrir, Catalan cobrir, French couvrir and Spanish cubrir.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, which DELR dates to about 1500; it has acoperi in several psalms (26:9, 30:27, 54:5) and the past acoperiră.^[2][8] The sense there is “to cover, to shelter”, and the Psalter of Alba Iulia also uses it for “to protect”.^[9] Tiktin quotes the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel of 1551–1553 for the physical sense: „cum corabiia acoperise cu valure” “how the waves had covered the ship” (Matthew 8:24).^[7] MDA2 gives Coresi's Psalter of 1577 as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From “to put something over a thing” the verb came to mean “to roof a house” (a acoperi o casă) and, figuratively, “to hide, to shield” a person or a deed: a Moldavian law code speaks of people who hide a thief and do not give him up, „de-l vor acoperi și nu-l vor spune”.^[7] MDA2 records an old sense “to wrap all round” and, in the reflexive, a rare “to be filled”.^[4] Modern senses are military (“to protect the retreat”), financial (a acoperi cheltuielile “to cover the expenses”), and, as a gallicism of sports writing, “to cover a distance”.^[6] Recent press usage (quotations from 2006–2008) has it for “to report on an event or area” and “to supply a region with goods or services”, two senses DELR also lists.^[10][2]

The family is old: acoperământ “covering, shelter” appears with the verb in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, and Ciorănescu takes it straight from Latin cooperīmentum.^[2][3] Acoperiș “roof” is recorded from 1581, first as coperiș in Coresi.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – acoperi and acoperământ in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2]
• 1551–1553 – acoperise in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[7]
• 1570 – coperit “covering” in a psalter of Coresi.^[2]
• 1577 – Coresi's Psalter, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1581 – coperiș “roof” in Coresi's Gospel; the form acoperiș follows in 1640.^[2]
• 1688 – „l-au acoperit pre el cu cojocul ei” “she covered him with her fur coat” in the Bucharest Bible (Judges 4:18).^[7]
• 1802–1803 – acopereală “covering”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To cover: to put something over an object or a being, to hide or to protect it;^[6][4] a se acoperi de glorie “to cover oneself with glory”.^[6][4]
2. To put a lid on something open, to close it; to put a roof on a building.^[6]
3. To coat a surface with a layer of material, to protect it or make it last.^[6][4]
4. (military) To protect, to shield troops or a position; reflexive, to secure oneself with documents and justifications.^[6]
5. To conceal, to keep secret.^[6][4]
6. To drown out a noise or a tune by being louder.^[6]
7. To match, to satisfy;^[6][4] a acoperi cheltuielile “to meet the expenses”.^[6][4]
8. (sport) To cover a distance;^[6] a acoperi terenul “to be present all over the pitch”.^[6]
9. To report on an event or a region; to supply an area with goods or services.^[10][2]

Word family

• acoperământ
• acopereală
• acoperiș
• acoperit
• acoperitoare
• acoperitură
• reacoperi
• acoperire

Related words

• coperi
• descoperi
• Aromanian acoapir
• Latin cooperiō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. acoperi
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. coperi
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 10
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2205
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 8
7. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. acoperi
8. ^ 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 26:9
9. ^ Psaltirea tipărită în Mitropolia Bălgradului la 1651 (2001), ed. Eva Mârza et al., Alba Iulia: Editura Reîntregirea, p. 705
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. acoperi