bosumfla

Forms

bosumfla (present bosumflu, third-person singular bosumflă, past participle bosumflat), 1st conjugation, reflexive a se bosumfla^[2][1] Older and regional variants include bozumfla, buzumfla, boșumfla, bosâmfla, bursumfla and borsumfla.^[3][4] Iacob Negruzzi has bursumflat: „De aceea sta cu Lufa în lojă, bursumflat” “that is why he sat sulking in the box with Lufa”.^[5][6]

Etymology

The origin is uncertain: DEX calls it unknown, and DELR calls it uncertain.^[2][3] The usual view is a compound of the Romance base of bot “snout” and a verb of the family of Latin flō (“to blow”).^[3] Ciorănescu reconstructs a Romance compound of Vulgar Latin *bottum and īnflō (“to inflate”), continued by umfla, and points to Old Occitan boudenfla, Franco-Provençal budenfi and Catalan botunflat.^[7][1] DELR lists more of these compounds, all meaning “to swell” or “to sulk”, in Gallo-Romance and northern Italy, such as Occitan boudenfla and Italian botenfiare (“to sulk”) of Siena.^[3]

A compound with the participle umflat does not explain the /s/, so DELR suggests that the second part was sufflō (“to blow”), as Hasdeu and Tiktin thought: a form ⟨*bosuflat⟩, later given a nasal after the participle.^[3][6] The same compound may lie behind Old French bousouflé (“swollen”), the source of French boursouflé.^[3] The DA leaves the word unexplained, comparing boursoufler and Hungarian boszú (“anger”).^[5] Rohr suggests busa (“big-headed, sullen”) combined with the Romanian verb.^[3] Moldovan derived it from a Turkish word for “stern, threatening”, crossed with the same verb.^[7]

DLRM and DEXI derive it from buză “lip” and the verb for “to swell”, “to puff up the lips”.^[8][9] Ciorănescu and the DA take this link with the lips as folk etymology, which gave the variants ⟨bozumfla⟩ and ⟨buzumfla⟩.^[7][5] DELR explains ⟨borsumfla⟩ by the influence of the French verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Alecsandri in 1844, as a reflexive verb meaning “to show one's displeasure by one's face, to sulk”.^[3][6] MDA2's first record is Bengescu, whose line „bosumflă-te acum” “go on, sulk now” Tiktin quotes.^[4][6]

Semantic evolution

The verb has kept the sense “to sulk”, with a frown and pressed lips.^[2][4] The DA compares the same image of puffed lips in Megleno-Romanian mi nabuzos “I sulk” and the Russian phrase naduvati guby “to blow up the lips”.^[5] Its past participle bosumflat is used as an adjective, “sulky”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1844 – first record, in Alecsandri.^[3][6]
• 1859–1862 – the variant bosâmfla in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[3]
• 1868 – the variant bosomfla in Constantin Stamati.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive, colloquial) To sulk or pout: to show displeasure by frowning and pressing the lips together; to be îmbufnat: Copilul s-a bosumflat când i-am luat jucăria.^[2][4][1]

Related words

• umfla
• bot
• buză
• îmbufna

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 114
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. bosumfla
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 235
5. ^ 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. bosumfla
6. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. bosumfla
7. ^ 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. bosumfla
8. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 89
9. ^ Dima, Eugenia (coord.) (2007), Dicționar explicativ ilustrat al limbii române, Chișinău: Arc / Gunivas, p. s.v. bosumfla