apă

Forms

apă f (plural ape)^[1] Old texts sometimes double a letter: the Psaltirea Scheiană (16th century) has aapă: „în aapă răposată sătură-me” “he fed me at still water” (Psalm 22).^[2] A 17th-century miscellany of St Nicholas' Church in Brașov has appă: „eŭ adecă vă botezii cu appă” “I baptize you with water”.^[2][3] Besides the usual plural ape, a plural apuri occurs in folk poetry: „Cu izvoare adânci, Cu apuri calde” “with deep springs, with warm waters”.^[3][4] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written апэ.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aqua (“water”), a word inherited by every Romance language.^{[5][6][7][4][1]} Latin /kʷ/ became /p/ before /a/, as in iapă from equa; Sardinian abba also has a labial.^[2] The Latin word comes from *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”).^[1][8]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian apã, Megleno-Romanian apu or Megleno-Romanian apă, and Istro-Romanian åpę.^{[6][5][9][10]} Its Romance cognates include Italian acqua, Sardinian abba, French eau, Catalan aigua, Spanish agua and Portuguese água.^[6][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Transylvanian place name of 1213.^[5][12] In Romanian texts it appears in the 16th century with the sense “water”: Coresi's Omiliar of 1580 tells how the herd rushed from the shore into the sea and drowned, „se afundară într-apă”.^[2] MDA2 dates its first record to before 1591.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The core senses are the liquid and a body of water: a river, a lake or the sea.^[13][6] Two further senses come from them: a liquid or secretion of the body, and the shifting gleam of something that shines.^[6] Ciorănescu notes that the other Romance languages and Modern Greek νερό (neró) share the gleam sense.^[6] Some Romanian idioms match Greek ones closely: a ști ca pe apă “to know fluently” and Greek ξέρω σὰ νερό, a nu fi în apele sale “not to be oneself” and Greek χάνω τὰ νερά μου.^[6]

Romanian formed a family of derivatives from the word.^[5] Apar “water carrier” is recorded from 1667.^[5] Pușcariu and the REW take it straight from Latin aquārius.^[6] Ciorănescu prefers a Romanian derivative with the agent suffix -ar, and DELR gives both views.^[6][5] Apătos “watery” is another Romanian formation, though Pușcariu and the DA reconstruct a Latin *aquatosus for it.^[6] Compounds name eye diseases: apă albă “cataract” and apă neagră “glaucoma”, both recorded from 1815.^[5][13]

Timeline

• 1213 – a Transylvanian place name, the first record.^[5][12]
• 16th century – aapă in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1580 – într-apă “into the water” in Coresi's Omiliar.^[2]
• before 1591 – apă “water” in a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy.^[4]
• 17th century – the spelling appă in a Brașov miscellany.^[2][3]
• 1667 – apar “water carrier” in Melchisedec's chronicle edition.^[5]
• 1679 – apare “water vessel” in Dosoftei.^[5]
• 1696 – apărie “mass of water”.^[5]
• 1815 – apă albă “cataract” and apă neagră “glaucoma”.^[5]
• 1890 – apăraie “flood of water” in Creangă.^[5][6]

Meanings

Noun

1. water: the colourless liquid without taste or smell, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.^[13][1]
2. A body of water: a river, a lake or the sea; in the plural, waters: ape teritoriale “territorial waters”.^[13]
3. A liquid, juice or secretion of the body.^[6][4]
4. The changing gleam of a shining surface, such as watered silk, metal or a gem.^[6][14]

Word family

• apar
• apăraie
• apărie
• apătos
• apșoară
• apos

Related words

• Aromanian apã
• Latin aqua

Usage notes

Many fixed expressions use the word: a bate apa în piuă “to keep saying the same thing” and a nu fi în apele sale “to be out of sorts”.^[13][4] Ca pe apă means “fluently, by heart”: Știa poezia ca pe apă.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. apă
3. ^ 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. apă
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, 77
5. ^ 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. apă
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. apă
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 8
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
10. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 570
12. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. apă
13. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 53
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 110