depune

Forms

a depune (third-person singular present depune, past participle depus, third-person subjunctive depună), third conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēpōnō (“to put down, lay aside; to deposit”), a learned loan adapted to the inherited verb pune, with some senses after French déposer.^[2][3][1] Ciorănescu likewise says that all its uses meaning “to deposit” are neologisms, while the popular senses of the verb continue the Latin word inherited (see Usage notes).^[4] The French verb is itself a loan from the Latin one, reshaped after poser.^[1] The Latin verb is formed dē- + pōnō (“to put”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the verb “to put down” to a document of 1774 printed in the Uricariul.^[5] DELR's first record is Petru Maior's church history of 1813: „Depus-au tecile săgeților armeanul” “the Armenian laid down his quivers”.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The sense “to put down” soon led to “to give into safe keeping”: a text of 1833 requires the publisher to deposit a copy of each book with the state secretariat.^[3] Money placed in a bank followed, with the noun depunere from 1831 and depunător “depositor” from 1822.^[2] Legal and official phrases came with the French model: a depune mărturie “to testify”, a depune jurământ “to take the oath”, a depune mandatul “to resign one's office”.^[2][6]

Laying down was also giving up power: a depune armele “to surrender” and a depune coroana “to abdicate”.^[5] The verb once also meant “to depose” someone, a sense DELR marks as old and now rare.^[2][7] In the natural sciences it is used of animals laying eggs and, reflexively, of solids settling out of a liquid;^[2][6] depunere “sediment” is recorded from 1855.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1774 – first record, in a document printed in the Uricariul.^[5]
• 1813 – depus-au “laid down” in Petru Maior.^[2]
• 1822 – depunător “depositor”.^[2]
• 1831 – depunere “deposit, the act of depositing”.^[2]
• 1855 – depunere “sediment”.^[2]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French déposer, consigner.^[8]
• 1864 – deponent “depositor”, from Italian or Latin.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To put down something one holds, setting it somewhere.^[6][1]
2. (transitive) To deposit money in a bank: a depus economiile la bancă.^[6][5][1]
3. (transitive) To submit a document, a request or a report to the competent authority: a depune o cerere.^[6][5]
4. a depune mandatul: to resign an office one can no longer fill.^[6]
5. a depune jurământ: to take an oath;^[6][1] a depune mărturie: to testify.^[6][1]
6. a depune efort (muncă, osteneală): to work hard, to make an effort.^[6]
7. a depune armele: to surrender, to stop fighting.^[5]
8. (transitive, of egg-laying animals) To lay eggs in a suitable place.^[6]
9. (reflexive, of solids in a liquid) To settle, to form a sediment.^[6][5]
10. (dated) To depose, to dismiss someone from office.^[2][1]

Word family

• depunere
• depunător

Related words

• pune
• depozit
• deponent
• French déposer

Usage notes

DEX has a second, regional verb depune (DEX's depune², DELR's and DLR's depune¹): of cows, buffaloes and other domestic animals, to have the udder swell with milk shortly before giving birth, and also to give birth.^[6][9][10] It is inherited from Latin dēpōnō, and in Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian the verb means “to come down”: Aromanian dipun and Megleno-Romanian dipun.^{[4][9][11][12]} DELR takes “to come down” to be its first Romanian sense, and explains the udder sense either as the udder “letting down” or as milk gathering low in it (Pușcariu).^[9] DELR dates it to 1679 in Dosoftei;^[9][7][10] Dosoftei also uses it of the Virgin Mary near childbirth: „Depuind svinția ei Maria ... să nască”.^[9][7][10] In folk poetry it is said of the moon setting: „Și ca luna când depune”.^[10] Its Romance cognates are Italian deporre, Spanish deponer and Portuguese depor.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. depune²
3. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. depune²
4. ^ 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. depune
5. ^ 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, 649
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 293
7. ^ 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. depune
8. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 195
9. ^ a b c d e 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. depune¹
10. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. depune¹
11. ^ Saramandu, Nicolae (coord.) et al. (2010–), Dicționarul dialectului meglenoromân, general și etimologic, fascicles in Fonetică și dialectologie XXIX–, p. 206
12. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 110