Etymologically
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apă

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Pronunciation

Forms

apă f (plural ape)[1] Old texts also spell it appă; besides the usual plural ape a rare apuri is recorded.[2] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet it was written апэ.[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin aqua (“water”), a word inherited by every Romance language.[3][4][5][2][1] The Latin word comes from *h₂ekʷeh₂ (“water, flowing water”).[1][6]

The word survives in all four branches of Romanian: Aromanian apã in Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian apu or Megleno-Romanian apă in Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian åpę in Istro-Romanian.[4][3][7][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian acqua, Sardinian abba, French eau, Catalan aigua, Spanish agua and Portuguese água.[4][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a Transylvanian place name of 1213.[3][10] In connected Romanian text MDA2 dates the word to before 1591, in a passage printed in Gaster's chrestomathy, already with the sense “water”.[2]

Semantic evolution

The core senses are the liquid and a body of water: a river, a lake or the sea.[11][4] Two further senses come from them: a liquid or secretion of the body, and the shifting gleam of something that shines.[4] Ciorănescu notes that the other Romance languages and Modern Greek νερό (neró) share the gleam sense.[4] 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.[4]

Romanian formed a family of derivatives from the word.[3] Apar “water carrier” is recorded from 1667.[3] Pușcariu and the REW take it straight from Latin aquārius.[4] Ciorănescu prefers a Romanian derivative with the agent suffix -ar, and DELR gives both views.[4][3] Apătos “watery” is another Romanian formation, though Pușcariu and the DA reconstruct a Latin *aquatosus for it.[4] Compounds name eye diseases: apă albă “cataract” and apă neagră “glaucoma”, both recorded from 1815.[3][11]

Timeline

  • 1213 – a Transylvanian place name, the first record.[3][10]
  • before 1591 – apă “water” in a Romanian text.[2]
  • 1667 – apar “water carrier” in Melchisedec's chronicle edition.[3]
  • 1679 – apare “water vessel” in Dosoftei.[3]
  • 1696 – apărie “mass of water”.[3]
  • 1815 – apă albă “cataract” and apă neagră “glaucoma”.[3]
  • 1890 – apăraie “flood of water” in Creangă.[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

  1. water: the colourless liquid without taste or smell, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen.[11][1]
  2. A body of water: a river, a lake or the sea; in the plural, waters: ape teritoriale “territorial waters”.[11]
  3. A liquid, juice or secretion of the body.[4][2]
  4. The changing gleam of a shining surface, such as watered silk, metal or a gem.[4][12]

Word family

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

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”.[11][2] Ca pe apă means “fluently, by heart”: Știa poezia ca pe apă.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ 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
  3. ^ 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
  4. ^ 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
  5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 8
  6. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
  8. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
  9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 570
  10. ^ 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
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 110