apune

Forms

apune (third-person singular present apune, past participle apus, third-person subjunctive apună), 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin appōnō (“to place beside, put on”), formed from ad- and pōnō (“to put”).^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The sense “to set” is explained through an intermediate “to put down, to lie down”, which survives in Aromanian apun (“to put down; to sit, lie down; to set”).^[2][3][7]

The other Romance descendants have other senses: Italian apporre, Old French apondre, Portuguese apôr.^[3][8] For the setting of the sun the other Romance languages use the simple verb, as in Spanish ponerse, and Late Latin (sōl) pōnēns (“setting (sun)”) gave Italian ponente and Spanish poniente “west”.^[2][3] Ciorănescu adds that the Romanian phrase for sunset passed into Modern Greek σορουπώνει (sorupónei, “night falls”) and compares Albanian serpont (“dusk”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1560–1561, in Mark 1:32, with the sense “to set”.^[2][9] The participle apus “west” is older: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century) has it.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

The verb is used of the sun, the moon and the stars, in contrast with răsări.^[11][4] From the sun's going down it came to mean to decline, to vanish for ever and, of people, to die; of the eyes, to close.^[11][3][9] A-i apune cuiva steaua “someone's star sets” means to lose one's standing.^[4][5]

The participle became the noun apus “sunset; west”, which in turn gave apusean “western” (1703).^[2] The compound soare-apune also meant “the west”.^[5][12]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – apus “west” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[10][2]
• 1560-1561 – apune “to set” in Coresi's Tetraevanghel, the first record of the verb.^[2]
• 1643 – neapus “unsetting” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2]
• 1703 – apusean “western”.^[2]
• 1834 – apunător “setting” in C. Stamati.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. Of the sun and other heavenly bodies, to set, to go below the horizon.^[4][1]
2. (figurative) To lose all one's splendour, power or fame; to decline, to disappear for ever.^[4]
3. (figurative) To die.^[1][13]

Word family

• apus
• apusean
• apunător
• neapus

Related words

• pune
• Aromanian apun

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. apúne
3. ^ a b c d e f 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. apune
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 56
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 85
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 551
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 124
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ 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. apúne
10. ^ 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 67:4
11. ^ a b 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. apúne
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. s.v. apune
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. apune