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apărare

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Etymology and origin of the Romanian word apărare

Confidence
Established
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1564 Coresi's Molitvenic More words from the 16th century
Ultimate origin
Latin apparō
Etymology tree
inherited borrowed derived
Latin parō
Italian parare
French parade
English parade
Spanish parar
English pare
Latin apparō
Italian apparare
Romanian apăra
Romanian apărare
From the same root
Latin disparō ← parō
Latin imperō ← parō
Latin parābilis ← parō
Latin parātus ← parō
Latin praeparō ← parō
Latin reparō ← parō
Latin sēparō ← parō
Spanish parada ← parō
Latin apparātus ← apparō

Forms

apărare f (plural apărări)[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of apăra (“to defend”), formed from Romanian apăra + -re and used as an abstract noun.[2][3][4][1] The verb is from Latin apparō (“to prepare”); its sense moved from “to prepare against” to “to keep off” and then “to defend”, a development found only in Romanian, though the base verb parō has such senses in Italian parare and Portuguese parar.[5][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Coresi's Molitvenic of 1564, quoted by Hasdeu, with the old sense “hindrance, obstacle”: „mulți avea de-l oprită: ci toată apărarea birui” “many held him back, but he overcame every obstacle”.[2][3][7] Tiktin's earliest is Coresi's homiliary of 1581.[4]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the word could still mean “prohibition, refusal, resistance”, the old sense of the verb.[2][4] Beside it the sense “protection, defence” is quoted from Varlaam's homiliary of 1643, where the cross is the apărare mirenilor “the protection of lay people”.[2][7] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century use it to gloss Slavonic words for hindrance and protection.[8] In old law it meant exemption from a tax or a sentence, and a ground for exemption.[2][3] The military sense appears in Neculce's chronicle.[2] The DA also records the legal sense “plea, the defence in a trial” and “counsel for the defence”, and DEX adds the sporting sense of the players who guard the goal.[2][9] Concretely it also meant a fortification.[2]

Timeline

  • 1564 – “hindrance” in Coresi's Molitvenic.[3][2]
  • 1581 – in Coresi's homiliary.[4]
  • 1643 – “protection” in Varlaam's homiliary.[2]
  • 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.[8]
  • 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (Hebrews 10:39).[10]
  • 1801 – Klein glosses it with Latin defensio.[11]
  • 1804 – “exemption” from taxes in a document of the Uricariul.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The act of defending or protecting someone or something, or oneself; defence;[9][3] a lua apărarea cuiva “to take someone's side”;[9][3] legitimă apărare “self-defence”.[9][3]
  2. (military) A main form of combat that aims to stop the enemy's offensive; the measures taken to that end.[9]
  3. (law) The party in a trial that pleads someone's cause; the plea made for the accused.[9][2]
  4. (sport) The players of a team whose task is to guard their own goal.[9]
  5. (obsolete) Hindrance, prohibition; exemption from a tax or a penalty.[3][2]

Word family

  • autoapărare

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. apărare
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 78
  4. ^ 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. apărare
  5. ^ 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. apăra
  6. ^ 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. apăra
  7. ^ a b Hasdeu, B. P. (1886–1898), Etymologicum Magnum Romaniae: dicționarul limbei istorice și poporane a românilor, 4 vols. (A–Bărbat), București: Socec, p. s.v. apărare
  8. ^ 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. apărare
  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. 53
  10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Evr 10:39
  11. ^ Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 303

Related etymologies

  • apă · also from Latin
  • bun · also from Latin
  • unde · also from Latin
  • veni · also from Latin
  • noi · also from Latin
  • bine · also from Latin
  • un · also from Latin
  • și · also from Latin
Cite this entry

“Apărare.” Etymologically, 12 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/ro/ap%C4%83rare. Accessed 12 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·