coborî

Forms

coborî (third-person singular present coboară, past participle coborât, third-person subjunctive coboare), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

The verb goes back to an older pogorî, the form found in the first texts.^[2][1] In DELR's view the older verb is from Old Church Slavonic погорь (pogorĭ, “downwards”), taken either through an unattested Old Church Slavonic verb formed on it or through a Romanian adverb pogor, which survives only south of the Danube: Aromanian pogor (“downwards”).^[2] It objects that a Romanian derivative would hardly explain why all the old forms belong to the strong conjugation.^[2] MDA2 starts from the Romanian adverb and compares the Slavonic word.^[3] Miklosich records the Slavonic adverb with the sense “downhill” and already compares the Romanian forms.^[4] Wiktionary calls the origin unknown and takes the older verb from Proto-Slavic *pogorъ, comparing Polish pogórze.^[1]

The form with /k/ is usually explained from the older verb by a shift in the place of articulation of the consonants: so the DA, Ciorănescu and Pușcariu, who posits an intermediate goborî recorded in Cantemir;^[2] DEX too refers the word to the older verb.^[2][5] A crossing with oborî may have helped.^[2] The phonetic explanation is supported by the fact that the stem ⟨cobor-⟩ appears only in the second half of the 17th century, and with the same senses as the older verb.^[2]

Other proposals are listed by DELR: the first edition of Tiktin took the word from oborî (“to knock down”), itself from оборити (oboriti);^[2] Mihăilă reconstructed a Slavonic verb with initial /k/ on the evidence of Istro-Romanian scobori;^[2] Graur saw a crossing of that verb with one taken from Bulgarian поборвам (poborvam, “to defeat, to knock down”); and the DA and Avram allowed for a dissimilated form of such a verb.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the form pogorî, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, with the sense “to come down”.^[2] The 16th-century psalters keep that form: Coresi's psalter of 1589 has pogor and pogoară.^[6] MDA2 dates the verb from the Palia de la Orăștie (1581).^[3] The stem cobor- is recorded from the second half of the 17th century.^[2]

Semantic evolution

From going down from a height the verb spread to getting off a vehicle, flying down, and the setting of the sun and moon.^[5][3] Figurative uses followed: night or mist “falls”, a thermometer or a temperature drops, a singer lowers the voice.^[5][3] In the older popular language it could mean to give up a throne, to abdicate.^[5] The sense “to descend from, to be of a lineage” is in Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929, with the example that the Romanians descend from the Romans.^[7] Romanian drug slang uses it for coming down after a drug's effect has worn off.^[8]

The 17th-century lexicons use the participle coborît to render the Slavonic verb for “deposed, thrown down”.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – pogorî in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2]
• 1581 – the verb in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[3]
• 1589 – pogor and pogoară in Coresi's psalter.^[6][10]
• 1627 – the place name Pogorâș, the first record of the noun coborâș “slope”.^[2]
• c. 1650 – the noun pogorît “descent”, later coborât.^[2]
• 1664 – the participle coborît in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1673 – the nouns pogor “descent” and pogorâciune in Dosoftei.^[2]
• 1777-1782 – pogorâtor “descending; descendant”.^[2]
• 1826 – pogorământ “descent; condescension”, a church word.^[2]
• 1857 – recoborî “to go down again”.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. To go or come down from a higher place, or to get off a vehicle; also to take or bring something down: Coborâm la stația următoare. “We get off at the next stop.” In a coborî ochii (or privirea), to look down out of shame or shyness.^[5][3][1]
2. To move down a slope; to fly down to the ground.^[5]
3. Of the sun or moon: to set.^[5][3]
4. (figurative, popular) To give up a throne, to abdicate.^[5]
5. (figurative) Of darkness, night or mist: to fall, to come on.^[5][3]
6. Of a thermometer or a temperature: to drop.^[5][3]
7. To lower the voice, to pass to a deeper register or speak more softly.^[5][3]
8. To descend from, to have one's origin in.^[5][7]
9. (reflexive, figurative) To demean oneself.^[5]

Word family

• cobor
• coborâș
• coborât
• coborâtură
• pogorământ
• recoborî
• coborâre
• coborâtor

Related words

• pogorî
• oborî

Usage notes

DEX gives pogorî as a variant of the verb.^[5] MDA2 also lists the old forms cuborî, goborî, pogorî and pugorî.^[3] CADE has the form scoborî beside coborî.^[11] The present is cobor, cobori, coboară.^[5][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. coborî
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 446
4. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller, p. s.v. погорь
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 200
6. ^ a b 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, p. Ps 17:11
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 143
8. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. coborî
9. ^ 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. coborît
10. ^ 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, p. Ps 143:6
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. coborî