acoperire

Forms

acoperire f (plural acoperiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian acoperi + -re: the long infinitive of the verb, turned into a noun of action and in part into a concrete noun.^[2][3][4][1] The verb acoperi continues Latin cooperiō (“to cover over”), made of con- and operiō (“to close, to cover”), a verb kept across Romance.^[5] Its initial ⟨a-⟩ is either the Latin prefix ad-, pointing to a Vulgar Latin *accooperiō, or a vowel added to the older form coperi.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1581, in Coresi's homiliary.^[4] MDA2 gives the preface of Cheia înțelesului (Bucharest, 1678), where the abstract noun is used of a text drawn out „dentru acoperirea limbii striine” “from the covering of the foreign tongue”, that is, from the obscurity of a foreign language.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the word meant both the act of covering and a concrete covering.^[2][4] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 uses it for a garment, „au descoperit acoperirea tatălui său” “he has uncovered his father's covering”, and for a shield.^[6][2][4] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century give it for Slavonic прикровение “covering, veil”.^[7]

The modern technical senses came in the 19th and 20th centuries: DA records the commercial sense “sum that settles a bill” and the military sense “protection of advancing troops”, the latter in Maiorescu.^[2] Tiktin gives the cover of a bill of exchange and foc de acoperire “covering fire”.^[4] CADE (1931) adds a financial guarantee for a loan and, in astronomy, the passing of one star in front of another.^[8] Present-day dictionaries add the protective coating applied to a surface and the gold reserve that backs a currency, acoperire în aur.^[9][3]

Timeline

• 1581 – first record, in Coresi's homiliary.^[4]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon glosses Slavonic прикровение with it.^[7]
• 1678 – the abstract sense in Cheia înțelesului.^[3][2]
• 1688 – “covering, garment” and “shield” in the Bucharest Bible.^[10][4]
• 1825 – the Buda lexicon renders it with Latin cooperitio.^[11]
• 1931 – CADE records the financial and astronomical senses.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of covering something or of being covered; the placing of one object over another to wrap, hide or protect it.^[9][3]
2. The application of a protective coating to an object, by deposition, spraying, plating and the like.^[9][3]
3. (military) A feature of the ground, a wood or a village that hides troops from the enemy's view; also the measures that protect troops while they gather or manoeuvre.^[9] A avea acoperire means to be covered by precise instructions for what one did.^[9][12]
4. (finance) The means to meet a payment, an expense or an obligation, or to make good a deficit; the fund that provides it.^[9] Acoperire în aur is the gold and other assets that back a bank's notes.^[9][3]
5. (figurative) The concealment of a blameworthy deed.^[3]
6. (obsolete) A shield; a garment.^[3][4]

Related words

• acoperi
• acoperiș
• acoperământ
• descoperire

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. acoperire
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 10
4. ^ 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. acoperire
5. ^ a b 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
6. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deuteronomy 27:20
7. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. acoperire
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. acoperire
9. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 8
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Judges 5:8
11. ^ Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 3
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 15