bloca

Forms

bloca (third-person singular present blochează, past participle blocat), 1st conjugation^[1] The first records, of 1823, have the variants blocarisi and plocarisi;^[2] blochirui and blocui are old, rare variants.^[2] Negulici's vocabulary of 1848 enters it as blocare, conjugated blochez, blochezi, blochează.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French bloquer.^{[2][4][5][6][1]} DELR takes the variant blochirui from German blockieren, itself from French.^[2] The French verb is formed on bloc,^[7] which Wiktionary traces to Middle Dutch blok.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is of 1823, in Vârnav, under the variant blocarisi; the form bloca itself appears in 1829.^[2][6] The sense was military: to blockade a fortress or a port, as Negulici (1848) and Pontbriant (1862) define it.^[3][8] MDA2 dates it much later, to the technical lexicon of 1949.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From the blockade of a town or a state the verb passed to closing a road and stopping traffic, and then to a mechanism that jams or is locked in place, and to an organ that stops working.^[9][4] In economic use it means to freeze funds or products and to leave a vacant post unfilled; in sport it means to block an opponent.^[4][10] Șăineanu records a billiards sense, to drive a ball into the pocket,^[11] and CADE a printers' sense, to set a turned letter in place of a missing one.^[12] The related nouns came separately: blocadă from German Blockade (1829) and blocaj from French blocage (1892).^[2]

Timeline

• 1823 – blocarisi and plocarisi in Vârnav, the first record.^[2]
• 1829 – the form bloca;^[2][6] blocadă “blockade” the same year.^[2][6]
• 1848 – blocare “to besiege a fortress” in Negulici's vocabulary.^[3]
• 1892 – blocaj “blocking”.^[2]
• 1931 – the printers' sense in CADE.^[12]
• 1949 – in the technical lexicon, MDA2's first record.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blockade a town, port or state.^[4][9]
2. To close a road; to stop the movement of vehicles or people.^[4]
3. To jam or lock in a position;^[4][13] (reflexive) to stop working.^[4][13]
4. To freeze (temporarily) the use of products or funds, or the filling of a vacant post.^[4]
5. (sport) To block an opponent.^[4]

Related words

• bloc
• blocadă
• blocaj
• French bloquer

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. blocá
3. ^ a b c Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. bloca
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 109
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, 218
6. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bloca
7. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 78
9. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 84
10. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. bloca
11. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 68
12. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. bloca
13. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 251