descheia

Forms

a descheia (third-person singular present descheie, past participle descheiat, third-person subjunctive descheie; 1st conjugation)^[1] The old form is deșcheia: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki has „Rostul mieu deșcheiam” “I opened my mouth”, and Dosoftei „Smârcul budza să-ș deșchiaie” “that the abyss may open its lip”.^[2][3] MDA2 records the variant deschia and the regional dăscheia, desteia and deșteia.^[4]

Etymology

DELR, MDA2 and DEX take it from Latin, as inherited from Vulgar Latin *disclāvō, from dis- and clāvō (“to nail”), from clāvus (“nail”).^[5][4][6][1] The Latin noun was in origin closely tied to clāvis (“key”), which gave cheie.^[5][1] DELR points out that the oldest Romanian form, found in texts until late, is ⟨deșcheia⟩, with the regular Romanian outcome /ʃc/ of Latin /skl/;^[5] ⟨descheia⟩ is a late remaking after încheia.^[5] It survives south of the Danube as Aromanian dishcljiedz “to unlock”.^[5][7][8] Wiktionary compares Friulian disclavâ and French déclouer.^[1]

Others take it as formed in Romanian: DER lists it among the derivatives of ⟨încheia⟩, as do the CADE and the DLR, while Tiktin and Scriban derive it from ⟨cheie⟩.^[5][9][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is deșcheia in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520), of opening the mouth: „Rostul mieu deșcheiam”.^[5][4][2] Tiktin's first record is Eustratie's Pravila of 1632.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant “to open” (the mouth, then other things) and “to unlock”, a sense Aromanian keeps.^[2][4][7] It was also used of things made of pieces, such as ships, carts and buildings, and of the body: “to come apart, to come out of the joints”, and in a popular sense “to loosen up, to get the stiffness out of one's limbs”.^[5][4][3] Today it is chiefly the opposite of încheia for clothes: to undo buttons, laces, zips or straps.^[6][5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – deșcheia “to open (the mouth)” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[5][4]
• 1632 – Eustratie's Pravila, Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• 1839 – descheietură “opened part”.^[5]
• 1932 – descheiat “unbuttoning” in Arghezi.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To unbutton or undo a garment or its buttons, laces or straps: și-a descheiat haina “he unbuttoned his coat”.^[6][4][1]
2. (reflexive) Of things made of parts, or of the parts themselves: to come apart at the joints.^[6][4]
3. (obsolete or regional) To open; to unlock.^[4][2]

Word family

• descheiat
• descheietură

Related words

• încheia
• cheie
• Aromanian dishcljiedz

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. descheia
3. ^ 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. descheia
4. ^ 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, 655
5. ^ 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. descheia
6. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 295
7. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 402
8. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 401
9. ^ 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. încheia