astupa

Forms

astupa (third-person singular present astupă, past participle astupat, third-person subjunctive astupe) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *asstuppō (“to stop up with tow”), formed on Latin stuppa (“tow”);^[2][3][4][1] MDA2 writes *a(d)stuppō.^[5] Pușcariu also accepts *exstuppō and *stuppō as etyma, and Hasdeu notes Medieval Latin astopō, which may point to a Romance form with ad-.^[2] The Latin noun is from Ancient Greek στύππη (stúppē).^[6][7]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian astup and Megleno-Romanian stup.^[8][9] The simple verb is continued in Italian stoppare, Old French estoper and Spanish estopar.^[2][10] Wiktionary compares Albanian shtupoj.^[1] Ciorănescu thinks it may have met a Latin *extuphō, the source of French étuver.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR dates the first record to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of about 1500–1520, in the sense “to stop up an opening”.^[2] The psalters have astupă in Psalm 57, and Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană in the same psalm.^[11][12]

Semantic evolution

The DA takes the basic sense to be “to fill a hole or crack with tow”, especially to stop a bottle with a plug of tow; the material later ceased to matter, and the verb came to mean to fill or close any opening.^[13] From closing an opening it passed to blocking a road or a door, and to covering and hiding something, burying it in earth or snow, and hiding a sound or a trace.^[13][4]

Many phrases use it: a-și astupa urechile “to refuse to hear”, a astupa cuiva gura “to silence someone”, a astupa cuiva ochii “to keep someone from seeing the truth”, and a astupa găuri “to pay debts”.^[5][4] Tiktin quotes Cantemir for the figurative use of greed that blinds: „lăcomia stupându-i ochii”.^[12] In some regions the reflexive means to be constipated.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – astupă in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][11]
• 1570 – Coresi's psalter, Psalm 57.^[11]
• 1643 – Varlaam's Cazania.^[5]
• 1643 – the opposite destupa “to uncork, uncover”, also in Varlaam.^[2]
• c. 1650 – astupătoare “stopper” and astupător in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[2]
• 1780–1801 – astupuș “plug” in Micu.^[2]
• 1814 – astupătură “stopping; a filled-in pit”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop up, plug or fill a hole, crack or opening; to cork a bottle: Am astupat gaura din gard cu o scândură. “I stopped the hole in the fence with a board.”^[4][5][1]
2. To block an entrance or a road; to wall up a door.^[5][14]
3. To cover so that it cannot be seen; to bury.^[4][5]
4. To drown out a sound; to wipe out a trace.^[4]
5. (regional, reflexive) To be constipated.^[5]

Word family

• astupat
• astupătoare
• astupător
• astupătură
• astupuș
• destupa
• destupătură

Related words

• stupă
• Aromanian astup

Usage notes

Common phrases are a-și astupa urechile “not to want to hear”, a astupa cuiva gura “to make someone keep quiet”, a-i astupa cuiva ochii “not to let someone see the truth” and, colloquially, a astupa găuri “to pay off debts, to cover the most pressing needs”.^[4][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. astupa
3. ^ a b 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. astupa
4. ^ 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. 70
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 116
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 172
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 278
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8333
11. ^ a b c 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 57:4
12. ^ 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. astupa
13. ^ 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. astupa
14. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 50