apăsa

Forms

apăsa (first-person singular present apăs, third-person singular present apasă, past participle apăsat, third-person subjunctive apese), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *appēnsō (“to weigh down”), a verb formed on Latin pēnsō (“to weigh”), the frequentative of pendō (“to hang; to weigh”).^[2][3][4][5] Since Classical Latin had the frequentative beside the simple verb, the DA assumes that popular Latin likewise formed one beside appendō.^[6] Wiktionary gives the intermediate form *appēsāre, with the /n/ lost before /s/.^[1]

The same verb survives in Gallo-Romance: Old French apeser and Occitan apesar.^[2][5] Crețu's derivation from a Latin *appressō is wrong, according to Ciorănescu.^[2] DELR compares Aromanian, which expresses “to press” through “to hang heavy” in the same way, with a verb going back to *ingreuicō.^[3] The simple verb păsa continues the Latin frequentative without the prefix.^[2][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3] There, in Psalm 58, apăsară renders “they fell upon me”: the mighty attacked the psalmist.^[8][9] MDA2 dates its first record later, to Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, where the heavy lower rope of a fish trap is said to press down, „pentru să apese într-adânc”, so that the fish do not escape.^[4][10]

Semantic evolution

The DA takes “to be heavy, to weigh” as the basic sense.^[6] From it came “to hang down (on a scale)” and “to be worth (by weight)”: Șincai wrote of a gold helmet that weighed 800 ducats.^[6] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 still glossed apăs with Latin “pendo” and German “wägen”.^[6] From the weight resting on something came “to press”, the usual modern sense, and in the figurative use “to oppress, to weigh on (someone)”.^[6][11]

The DA explains two figurative uses as modelled on French: “to weigh upon” (after peser sur) and “to stress a word” (after appuyer).^[6] In the old language the verb also meant “to pull down” and “to weigh”, and a regional sense is “to climb (a tree)”.^[3][4] The noun apăs “oppression, trouble” is a back-formation recorded about 1660, and apăsător and apăsătură are recorded about 1650.^[3]

Timeline

• early 16th century – apăsară “they fell upon” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][8]
• 16th century – the verb in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10][9]
• 1643 – “to press down” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4][6]
• c. 1650 – apăsător and apăsătură.^[3]
• c. 1660 – apăs “oppression”.^[3]
• 1825 – glossed “to weigh” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[6]
• 1908 – the noun apăsat.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To press: to bear down with all one's weight on something, to exert pressure on a body; also intransitive, a apăsa pe buton “to press the button”.^[11][4]
2. (figurative) To stress a word or a phrase in speaking.^[11]
3. (figurative) To oppress; to make suffer, to torment, to weigh heavily on someone: Grijile îl apăsau.^[11][4]
4. (regional) To climb, or help someone climb, into a tree.^[4]

Word family

• apăs
• apăsător
• apăsătură

Related words

• păsa
• Latin pēnsō

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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. apăsa
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. apăsa
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 78
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 544
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. apăsa
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 73
8. ^ a b 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 58:3
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 249
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. apăsa
11. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 53