bolnav

Forms

bolnav m or n (feminine singular bolnavă, masculine plural bolnavi, feminine/neuter plural bolnave)^[1] The stress falls on the last syllable in the west and on the first, bólnav, in the east;^[2][3][4] Scriban also records the variant bonlav.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Bulgarian болнав (bolnav).^{[5][6][4][3][7][1]} Ciorănescu follows Cihac in this and compares Romanian boală and boli.^[5][8]

In Bulgarian the word is a derivative of болен (bolen, “sick”), Old Church Slavonic больнъ (bolĭnŭ).^[9] It belongs to the family of Old Church Slavonic болѣти (bolěti, “to be ill”), Proto-Slavic *bolěti (“to ache”).^[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1551–1553, in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book, at Matthew 25:43.^[3] MDA2 dates it to Coresi's homily book of 1581, where the plural stands in the Gospel saying that the healthy have no need of a physician, but the sick.^[6][7]

Semantic evolution

The core sense, “sick, ill”, has not changed; the illness or the sick organ follows with de: bolnav de inimă “with heart disease”.^[7][3] The six 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss with it Slavonic words for “ailing”, from Mardarie's of 1649 on, and the Bucharest Bible of 1688 has it in all its forms.^[12][13] Used as a noun it means a sick person, a patient.^[4]

Transferred senses are “unsound, unhealthy” of things in poetry, and of the mind or of morals.^[7] In Transylvania the word has also meant “crippled, maimed, one-armed”, “incurable” and, in old use, “suffering from a venereal disease”, senses that elsewhere belong to beteag.^[7][6] A regional joke, bolnav de oală “sick from the pot”, means drunk.^[7][6]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book (Matthew 25:43).^[3]
• 1581 – the plural in Coresi's homily book.^[6][7]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 1776 – figurative sufletul cel bolnăvit “the sickened soul”, with the verb bolnăvi, in a Menaion.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. sick, ill: suffering from a disease;^[4][14][1] bolnav de moarte gravely ill: Copilul e bolnav de gripă. “The child is ill with flu.”^[4][14][1]
2. (figurative) Unsound, unhealthy, of the mind, of feelings or of things.^[7]
3. (regional, Transylvania) Crippled, maimed; incurable.^[6][7]

Noun

1. A sick person, a patient.^[4][6]

Word family

• bolnăvi
• bolnăvie
• bolnăvicios
• îmbolnăvi

Related words

• boală
• boli
• beteag
• Bulgarian болнав (bolnav)

Usage notes

Bolnav la minte or bolnav la cap means mentally ill.^[15] A proverb sets health above wealth: Decât bogat și bolnav, mai bine sărac și sănătos.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 186
3. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bolnav
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. 111
5. ^ 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. bolnav
6. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 227
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. bolnav
8. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 21
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 65
10. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
12. ^ a b Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. bolnav
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 9:12
14. ^ a b Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 87
15. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. bolnav