baftă

Forms

baftă f (plural bafte)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ottoman Turkish بخت (baht, “luck, fortune”), according to the DA, CADE, Tiktin and MDA2,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} a word found in all the Balkan languages: Albanian baft (Gheg), Serbo-Croatian baht, Bulgarian бахт (baht) and Modern Greek βάχτ (vácht).^[2][7][8] The DA explains the change of /ht/ to /ft/ by comparing piftie from Turkish.^[2] The Turkish word is from Persian بخت (baxt).^[9][8]

Ciorănescu thinks the word entered Romanian through Romani baxt, which took it from Turkish, and Tiktin says that Romani spread it in Romanian slang.^[7][4] DELR and DEX take it directly from the Romani word (oblique baxta), following Graur;^[10][11][1] DELR finds the Turkish source unlikely, given the word's register and the late date of its first record.^[10][11][1] The Persian word is an old Iranian one from a root meaning “to distribute”, compare Avestan baxta- (“allotted; fate”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in the periodical Contemporanul of 1881, in an ironic verse tale: a Gypsy, seeing the saints' icons smeared with milk, says „Aferim de bafta voastră” “bravo, good for you”.^[10][2] The early senses were “luck” at cards and “standing, credit, honour”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In 19th-century Moldavia the word meant luck, especially at cards, and also standing or favour with someone: n-are baftă pe lângă el “he carries no weight with him”.^[2][4][3] It was often used ironically in exclamations.^[2] Scriban gives an ironic sense “face, honour” and calls “luck” rare.^[12] Today it is a familiar word for luck or a lucky chance, widely used in speech but rare in literature, with a touch of vulgarity.^[11][7] The adjective băftos means “lucky”.^[7]

Timeline

• 1881 – bafta “credit, honour” in Contemporanul.^[10][2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu records it as a Moldavian word for luck at cards.^[13]
• 1958 – DLRM gives it as a familiar word for luck.^[6]

Meanings

Noun

1. (familiar) luck, chance; a lucky break: Am avut baftă la loto. “I was lucky at the lottery.”^[11][10][1]
2. (regional, Moldavia) favour with someone, standing, credit.^[10][5]
3. (dated) honour, esteem, often ironic.^[5][2]

Word family

• băftos

Usage notes

Constantin Stamati used baftă several times for “mouth, throat” (1868); DELR treats it as a separate word of unknown origin, while CADE took it for the same word, and Ciorănescu could not explain the use.^[10][7][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. baftă
3. ^ a b c d Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. báftă
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, 156
6. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 63
7. ^ a b c d e 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. baftă
8. ^ a b Demiraj, Bardhyl (ed.), Digitales philologisch-etymologisches Wörterbuch des Albanischen, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
9. ^ Tietze, Andreas (2002–2018), Tarihi ve Etimolojik Türkiye Türkçesi Lugatı, Istanbul: Simurg; Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences
10. ^ 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. báftă
11. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 85
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 144
13. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 49