apus

Forms

apus n (plural apusuri); adjective apus m or n (feminine apusă, masculine plural apuși, feminine and neuter plural apuse)^[1]

Etymology

It is from Romanian apune (“to set”), its past participle used as a noun and as an adjective.^[2][3][4][1] The verb continues Latin appōnō (“to place near, put to”), formed with ad- on pōnō (“to put”).^[5][6][7] The Romanian sense goes back to an intermediate “to put down, lay down”, which Aromanian apunere still has: a low house is casă apusă there.^[5][6][8]

The Western Romance languages named the west in the same way, from the Late Latin participle ponens (said of the sun): Italian ponente, Spanish poniente, Portuguese poente and Occitan ponen, which gave French ponant.^[6][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, as apusul “the setting (of the sun); the west” (Psalms 103:20 and 106:3).^[6][9] MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The DA describes the noun as the participle of apune turned into an abstract noun: first the act of setting and the time of sunset, then the point of the horizon where the sun sets.^[2] In the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons apusul renders Slavonic западъ “west”.^[10] By extension it named the lands of the west, and with a capital the West of Europe, as in Bisericile Apusului “the Western Churches”; the derivative apusean “western” is recorded from 1703.^[4][6] Figuratively it meant an end, a decline.^[2][11] Wiktionary notes that apus was the traditional word for the west, and that vest is now the standard term.^[1]

The adjective went from “set” (of stars) to “vanished, long past”; the DA thinks Eminescu's vremi apuse may follow German untergegangen.^[2] Older Transylvanian writers such as Petru Maior used it for “backward, fallen low”, and it was said of eyes dimmed by fear.^[2] An old adverb meant “with contempt”.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – apusul in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[6][9]
• 1570 – the plural apuse in Coresi's psalter (Psalm 102:12).^[4][12]
• c. 1573-1578 – apus in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]
• 1643 – neapus “that never sets” in Varlaam's Cazanie.^[6]
• 1649 – apusul glossing Slavonic “west” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – the plural apusuri in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]
• 1703 – the derivative apusean “western”.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. The setting of a heavenly body below the horizon, especially sunset; the view of the setting sun.^[11][3]
2. The west, the cardinal point opposite răsărit; by extension the lands lying that way, the Occident.^[11][1]
3. The time of day when the sun sets, asfințit: Ne-am întors acasă la apus.^[11]
4. (figurative) decline, fall, disappearance.^[11][1]

Adjective

1. (of heavenly bodies) That has set.^[3][1]
2. Vanished for ever, long past, bygone: obiceiuri apuse.^[11][3]
3. (of eyes) Dimmed, without sight.^[3][2]
4. (rare, old, Transylvania) Backward, fallen low.^[3][2]

Word family

• apusean
• neapus

Related words

• apune
• pune
• Aromanian apunere

Usage notes

DEX writes the noun and the adjective as two headwords, apus¹ and apus², both referred to apune.^[11] The old plural of the noun was apuse;^[4][3] apusuri appears in the Bible of 1688.^[4][3] La apus de soare and la apusul soarelui mean “at sunset”.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. apus
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 86
4. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. apus
5. ^ a b c 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
6. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. apune
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 104
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 36
9. ^ 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 103:20
10. ^ 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. apusul
11. ^ 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. 57
12. ^ 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 102:12