clipi

Forms

clipi (present clipesc, third-person singular clipește, past participle clipit), 4th conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic клепати (klepati, “to strike, hammer”), from Proto-Slavic *klepati.^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} In the Old Church Slavonic texts the verb means “to indicate, signify”, once “to signal by knocking with the foot”.^[7] Wiktionary calls the Proto-Slavic verb expressive or onomatopoeic.^[1]

The sense “to blink” is not recorded in Slavonic.^[6] Ciorănescu thinks it must have existed there, and compares Slavic verbs for “to close” and a Croatian word for the eyelid.^[6] Tiktin and Ciorănescu compare Bulgarian клепач (klepač, “eyelid”).^[8][6][9] DELR adds Bulgarian verbs for “to close the eyes, doze” and “to blink”, and a Ukrainian verb “to blink”, which it derives from an iterative Old Church Slavonic verb of the same base.^[4] Ciorănescu reports instead, after Candrea and the DA, that the Ukrainian words for “blink” and “moment” were borrowed from Romanian.^[6] Tiktin also compares German aufklappen and zuklappen beside klappern.^[8] For the sense “to flash” Ciorănescu points to sclipi.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record of the verb is in the Psaltirea Scheiană, copied around 1573–1578: the third person plural clipescu in Psalm 34, and the present participle clipindu.^{[4][3][8][10]} The noun clipit “blinking” is recorded a little earlier, in Coresi's Pravila of 1560–1562.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the movement of the eyelids, the old language used the verb for winking, and in Bukovina for dozing.^[3][4] Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649 uses clipesc to render Slavonic verbs for blinking and shutting the eyes.^[11] Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders it with Latin nictō (“to wink”).^[12] The phrase cât ai clipi (din ochi) “in the blink of an eye” is old and common.^[8][2] Figuratively, lights and stars clipesc “twinkle, flicker”.^[2][13]

A large family grew from the verb.^[4] The noun clipă “instant”, originally the movement of the eyelids, is a back-formation recorded in Dosoftei in 1683.^[6][4] Other early derivatives are clipitură (1566) and clipeală (1643).^[4]

Timeline

• 1560–1562 – the noun clipit in Coresi's Pravila.^[4]
• 1566 – clipitură “blink” in Coresi.^[4]
• c. 1573–1578 – clipescu in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record of the verb.^[4][3]
• 1643 – clipeală “blinking, instant” in Varlaam.^[4]
• 1649 – clipesc in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1683 – clipă “instant” in Dosoftei.^[4]
• 1688 – clipind in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1798 – neclipit “unblinking, fixed”.^[4]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary renders it with Latin “nicto”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To blink: to close and open the eyelids rhythmically, by reflex: Nu a clipit nici o dată cât a durat filmul.^[2][3]
2. (rare, dated) To wink.^[3]
3. (figurative) Of lights: to twinkle, to flicker, to glimmer.^[2][3]
4. (dated, Bukovina) To doze (moțăi).^[3][4]

Word family

• clip
• clipă
• clipeală
• clipelnic
• clipicios
• clipiș
• clipit
• clipită
• clipitor
• clipitură
• neclipit

Related words

• sclipi

Usage notes

The phrase cât ai clipi (din ochi), also cât clipești, means “in an instant, at once”.^[2][3][8]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. 196
3. ^ 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, 436
4. ^ 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. clipi
5. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. clipi
6. ^ a b c d e f g 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. clipi
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ 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. clipi
9. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 269
11. ^ 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. clipesc
12. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 337
13. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1, 468
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Isaiah 33:15