boală

Forms

boală f (plural boli)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic боль (bolĭ), a word recorded in Old Church Slavonic with the sense “sick, a sick person”.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} DELR notes that the sense “illness, bad state” is confirmed by the other Slavic languages: Bulgarian бол (bol) “pain” and dialectal “illness”, Serbo-Croatian bol and the older or dialectal bola “pain, illness”, Russian боль (bolʹ) “pain”, formerly also “illness”, and Polish ból “pain, grief”.^[2][6][7] DELR cites Mihăilă and the ESSJa for this view.^[2] MDA2 writes the Slavonic form болъ (bolŭ).^[8] The Slavonic word continues Proto-Slavic *bolь (“pain”), formed on *bolěti (“to be ill, ache”).^[1][9]

The verb boli “to be ill” is a separate loan, from болѣти (bolěti), and the adjective bolnav “ill” goes back to a Slavonic derivative of the same root.^[2] A further borrowing, the rare boleaznă “cattle plague”, is from болѣзнь (bolěznĭ, “illness”) or Bulgarian.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR and Tiktin date the first record to 1551–1553, in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book, in the sense “illness”.^[2][10] MDA2's first record is the Gospel book (Tetraevanghel) of 1574, where the sick are brought to Jesus „de toate boalele și de chinure ținuți” “held by all kinds of illnesses and torments”.^[8][11]

Semantic evolution

The word has meant a disease of the body from the first texts on, and folk speech made it part of many curses and sayings: Mânca-te-ar boala! “may the illness eat you!”.^[11] From the curses it became a term of abuse for lean, lazy or vicious animals, and sometimes for people.^[11][3][2] A colloquial sense “whim, passion for something” and the phrase a avea boală pe cineva “to bear someone a grudge” grew out of it as well.^[4][2]

Folk names of particular diseases are formed with it: boala copiilor “epilepsy”, boală lungă “typhoid fever”, boală seacă “pulmonary tuberculosis”, boală de zahăr “diabetes”.^[4] The derivative aboală “epilepsy” is recorded from 1893.^[2]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – boală and bolnav in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book, the first records.^[2][10]
• 1559–1560 – the verb boli in the Codex of Bratul.^[2]
• 1574 – boalele “the illnesses” in the Tetraevanghel.^[8][11]
• 1589 – in the psalter of 1589 (Psalm 30:12).^[12]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, for Slavonic болезнь.^[13]
• 1675 – boleac “sickly” in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[2]
• 1688 – nineteen times in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1893 – aboală “epilepsy”.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. disease, illness: an organic or functional disorder of the body of a person or an animal; also a disorder of a plant or of wine.^[4][8][1]
2. (colloquial, insulting) A lean, lazy or vicious animal, used chiefly in address.^[4][2]
3. (colloquial) A whim or passion for something or someone; in a avea boală pe cineva, a grudge against someone.^[4][2]

Word family

• aboală
• boleac
• boliște

Related words

• boli
• bolnav
• bolnăvicios
• boleaznă
• Old Church Slavonic боль (bolĭ)

Usage notes

The plural is boli; the older and popular plural boale is still heard.^[4][8] The phrase a băga pe cineva în (toate) boalele means “to upset, scare or exasperate someone”.^[4][11]

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 j k l m n o 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. boală
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. boală
4. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 109
5. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
6. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
7. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
8. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 219
9. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
10. ^ 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. boală
11. ^ a b c d e 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. boală
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
13. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition)