deșerta

Forms

deșerta (third-person singular present deșartă, past participle deșertat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a verb from Romanian deșert (“empty, deserted”).^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The adjective is from Latin dēsertus (“deserted, abandoned”).^[3][1] Pușcariu and Candrea–Densusianu derived the verb directly from Late Latin dēsertō (“to abandon”), with the cognates Italian disertare, French déserter and Portuguese desertar;^[3][8][9] Ciorănescu thinks this unnecessary, while DELR gives both views and adds that the Romanian sense would then have been shaped by the adjective.^[3][8][9] DELR records the infinitive Aromanian dișirtare.^[8] Ciorănescu gives the same Aromanian verb as dișertare.^[8] The verb is a doublet of dezerta, a later borrowing.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century.^[8][6] It has the imperative deșertați twice in one verse of Psalm 136, which the later psalters repeat.^[10] Besides “to empty”, DELR lists for the old language “to abandon, to lay waste, to depopulate”.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The concrete sense of emptying a container runs through the whole record: the Palia de la Orăștie of 1582 has „când iară sacii-şi deşertară” “when they emptied their sacks”.^[5] Old texts also used it of laying waste a town and, in the reflexive, of rivers flowing into the sea;^[8][4] Dosoftei has the reflexive for humbling oneself.^[8][4] The popular phrase a deșerta sacul “to empty the sack” means to tell everything one knows, and a deșerta paharul is to drain the glass.^[2][11] MDA2 adds unloading a cart, firing a gun and, in regional speech, tidying a room; in underworld slang deșerta has meant “to arrest”.^[6][12]

Its derivatives include deșertătură in Coresi in 1566 and deșertător “purgative” in 1847.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[8][6]
• c. 1551–1558 – deșertați in the Voroneț psalter.^[10]
• 1566 – deșertătură in Coresi.^[8]
• 1582 – „sacii-şi deşertară” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[5]
• 1660 – deșertară in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – the verb in Ezekiel in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1838 – the verbal noun deșertat.^[8]
• 1847 – deșertător “purgative”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (popular, transitive) To empty a container of all it holds;^[2][6] a deșerta sacul “to tell everything one knows”.^[2][6]
2. (popular, transitive) To drain a drink to the bottom.^[2][11]
3. (popular, reflexive) Of places, to become empty, deserted.^[2]
4. (transitive) To unload a vehicle.^[6]
5. (obsolete, transitive and reflexive) To lay waste, to depopulate a town or a dwelling.^[6][8]

Related words

• deșert
• deșertăciune
• dezerta

Usage notes

The present is deșert, third person deșartă; older speech also had deșertez.^[2][6][1] Regional forms include deșărta and dășărta.^[6] MDA2 enters a second deșerta as a variant of dezerta “to desert”.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d 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. 302
3. ^ a b c d 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. deșert
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. deșerta
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. deșerta
6. ^ 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, 679
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. deșerta
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n 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. deșert
9. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
10. ^ 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 136:10
11. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. deșerta
12. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. deșerta
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, p. s.v. deșertară
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ezekiel 5:2