blestema

Forms

blestema (third-person singular present blestemă, past participle blestemat, third-person subjunctive blesteme) 1st conjugation^[1] Old and Moldavian texts write blăstema and blăstăma: „Blagosloviți ceia ce vă blastemă” “bless those who curse you” (Coresi's Gospels, Luke 6:28).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *blastēmō (“to revile”), which DELR and MDA2 write *blastimō, an altered form of Late Latin blasphēmō (“to revile, blaspheme”).^[4][3][5][1] The Latin verb is from Ancient Greek βλασφημέω (blasphēméō, “to speak ill of, blaspheme”), a compound built on φήμη (phḗmē, “report, talk”), with a first element probably from the root of βλάβη (blábē, “harm”).^[3] The form with /t/ for /f/ is pan-Romance: Ciorănescu points to Spanish lastimar as proof of it, and compares Italian biasimare and French blâmer.^[4][3] DHLF explains the /t/ by dissimilation of the second labial, and notes the altered spelling in a Latin inscription from Gaul.^[6]

The verb survives south of the Danube: Aromanian blastim and Megleno-Romanian blastim.^[4][7][8] blasfema is a later loan of the classical Latin verb, and blama comes from the French verb.^[1][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the form blăstema.^[3][10] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean, in the Epistle of James (3:9), and MDA2 also cites that text.^[2][5] From the start it meant to call down misfortune on someone, the opposite of blessing.^[2][11]

Semantic evolution

The old language also had the intransitive sense “to blaspheme”: Dosoftei writes „a blăstămă asupra lui Dumnezău” “to blaspheme against God”.^[11] The reflexive meant to swear an oath on pain of being cursed: „Aceștea ce să giură și să blastămă cu strâmbul” “those who swear and curse themselves falsely” (Dosoftei).^[2][3] MDA2 marks the senses “to blaspheme” and “to swear” as obsolete.^[5]

The noun blestem “curse” is recorded as early as the verb;^[3] DA, DEX and Ciorănescu take it as a back-formation from the verb, Tiktin from Latin blasphēmium.^[3] In later use the verb is also said of cursing a moment or one's fate.^[2][5]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – blăstema and the noun blăstem in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3]
• 1560-1561 – blestemat “accursed” in Coresi's Gospels.^[3]
• c. 1563-1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5][2]
• 1590-1602 – blestemător “one who curses” in the Codex Sturdzanus.^[3]
• 1648 – the adverb blestemățește “wickedly”.^[3]
• 1668-1670 – blăstămăciune “curse”.^[3]
• 1683 – blăstămățesc “villainous” in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1688 – „cu inima lor blestema” “in their heart they cursed” in the Bucharest Bible (Psalm 61:4).^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To curse: to call down misfortune or the wrath of God on someone; of God, to doom.^[12][5][3]
2. (intransitive) To swear, revile; to blaspheme.^[12][5]
3. (transitive) To curse a moment or one's lot in anger or sorrow: Blestema ziua în care plecase. “He cursed the day he had left.”^[5][13]
4. (reflexive, obsolete) To swear an oath on pain of being cursed.^[5][3]

Word family

• blestem
• blestemat
• blestemăciune
• blestemățesc
• blestemățește
• blestemăți
• blestemăție
• blestemător

Related words

• blasfema
• blama

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. blestema
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p 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. blestema
4. ^ 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. blestema
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, 217
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. blâmer
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 213
8. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 86
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 23
10. ^ 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 23:4
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. blestema
12. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 108
13. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 84