afla

Forms

afla (third-person singular present află, past participle aflat, third-person subjunctive afle) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin afflō (“to blow or breathe upon”),^{[2][3][4][5][1]} formed from ad- (“to, towards”) and flō (“to blow”).^[1] The sense “to find” arose already in Vulgar Latin and survives in several Romance languages: Dalmatian aflatura (“things found on the shore”), southern Italian dialect forms, Spanish hallar and Portuguese achar.^[2][3][6] Ciorănescu notes that so many languages share the sense that the change must be older than Romanian.^[2] The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian aflu, Megleno-Romanian aflu and Istro-Romanian oflu.^[2][7][8]

How “breathe upon” became “find” is disputed.^[2] Schuchardt, followed by the REW and most modern scholars, took it from the language of hunting: the dog sniffs out and so finds the game.^[2][3][6] The REW also mentions a farming source, the hot wind or disease that “strikes” animals and plants, hence “seize, find”.^[6] Another view starts from the Latin passive “it is breathed to me, I am inspired”.^[2] Ciorănescu found both explanations unconvincing and proposed a reflexive “breathe, exist” behind the Romanian sense “to be (somewhere)”.^[2] Cihac's link with Byzantine Greek ἄλφειν (álphein, “to find”) is rejected.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3] The psalter index finds eight forms of the verb there, and the later 16th-century psalters of Voroneț and Coresi have it too.^[9] The Codicele Voronețean has it in the sense “to find”: „iuo aflămu frații” “where we found brethren” (Acts 28:14).^[10] MDA2 takes this text as its first record.^[4]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant above all “to find”, and also “to meet” and “to befall someone”: Tiktin quotes the Psaltirea Scheiană, „Scărbi și durere aflaiu” “sorrow and pain befell me”.^[10] From “find” came “discover, invent” and “think up”, now dated or popular.^[10][5] The sense “to learn, find out (news)” became the main one in the modern language, while “to find” is now usually expressed by găsi.^[5][2] The reflexive a se afla “to be, to be situated, to exist” is old as well.^[3][5]

Romanian formed aflat “discovery” (1551–1553), aflător “finder, that is found” (about 1500) and reafla “to find again” (1848); izăfla “to find, to invent”, of the Banat and old texts, adds the Slavic prefix iz-.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1500 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki;^[3] aflător appears in the same text.^[3]
• 1551–1553 – aflat “discovery” in the Slavonic–Romanian Gospel.^[3]
• c. 1563–1583 – aflămu “we found” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][10]
• 1649 – aflu glosses Slavonic обрѣтаю “I find” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• c. 1650 – izăfla “to find, to invent”.^[3]
• 1848 – reafla “to find again”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To learn or find out: to get news or information about something; to hear of it: Am aflat abia ieri că s-a mutat.^[5][4][1]
2. To find or discover, by searching or by chance.^[5][4]
3. (reflexive) To be, to be situated in a place, position or situation; to exist: Casa se află la marginea satului.^[5][1]
4. (popular) To invent or make up.^[5]

Word family

• aflat
• aflător
• izăfla
• reafla
• aflare

Related words

• găsi
• Aromanian aflu
• Latin afflō

Usage notes

Set phrases: a se afla în treabă “to meddle for show, without helping”;^[5] cum nu se mai află “out of the ordinary, extraordinary”.^[5] The popular a-și afla omul means to meet one's match.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. afla
3. ^ 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. aflá
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 24
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 19
6. ^ a b c Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 261
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 62
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 8
9. ^ 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 6:1
10. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. aflá
11. ^ 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. aflu