desface

Forms

desface (third-person singular present desface, past participle desfăcut, third-person subjunctive desfacă) 3rd conjugation^[1] The Codex Sturdzanus has the old past tense desveace: „o luo piatra patriarhul ... de o desveace” “the patriarch took the stone and split it”.^[2] Coresi's Tetraevanghel has the past tense desfeapse, remade after verbs such as înfipse.^[3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin disfaciō (“to undo”), from dis- and faciō (“to make, do”), according to MDA2, Candrea–Densusianu and Wiktionary.^[4][3][1] Ciorănescu allows the Latin verb but thinks it more likely a local formation, from Romanian des- + face, which is how the DLR and DEX explain it.^[5][6][7] Compare Aromanian disfac.^[5][8] The other Romance languages have parallel verbs: Italian disfare, French défaire, Spanish deshacer and Portuguese desfazer.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century) has desface in Psalm 73:12.^[9] Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Tetraevanghel of 1561 (Luke 4:17), and MDA2's is Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură of 1581.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

The verb undoes what was done: Miron Costin wrote that good counsel does not undo what is fated,^[6] and the proverb timpul face și desface “time makes and unmakes” is quoted by Filimon.^[6][2] From this come untying and unbuttoning, unfolding, taking apart, and cancelling an agreement or an engagement.^[7][4] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 uses it of unrolling a scroll: „și-l desfăcu pre el înaintea mea”.^[2]

In folk belief a desface un făcut is to lift a spell.^[2][7] The verb also means husking beans, nuts or maize, and selling off goods.^[2][10] In Oltenia the reflexive is used of a piglet growing after weaning, of a person coming to their senses and of the weather turning warm.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – desface in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• 1561 – Coresi's Tetraevanghel.^[2]
• 1581 – Coresi's Evanghelie cu învățătură.^[4]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic разширѧю “I widen” with desfac.^[12]
• 1688 – „și-l desfăcu pre el” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2][13]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives a desface un nod “to untie a knot”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To break up into parts;^[7] (transitive) to undo something that was done; to cancel an agreement or a contract.^[7]
2. (transitive and reflexive) To detach from where something is fixed, tied or fastened.^[7]
3. (reflexive and transitive) To separate from someone or something.^[7]
4. (transitive) To open something by untying or cutting it or lifting its lid; to unfold or spread out.^[7] A desface patul “to turn down the bed”.^[7] (reflexive) Of flowers, to open.^[7]
5. (transitive) To sell goods; to clear stock by selling it.^[7]
6. (intransitive, in folk belief) To lift a spell cast on someone.^[7]

Word family

• desfăcut
• desfăcătură
• desfacere

Related words

• face
• Aromanian disfac

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. desface
3. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 661
5. ^ 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. desface
6. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. desface
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 298
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 396
9. ^ 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 73:12
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 202
11. ^ Cazacu, Boris (coord.) et al. (1967), Glosar dialectal. Oltenia, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. 33
12. ^ 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. desfac
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iezechiil 2:10
14. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 202