despune

Forms

despune (third-person singular present despune, past participle despus, third-person subjunctive despună) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin dispōnō (“to set in order, to arrange; to decide”), from dis- and pōnō (“to put”).^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} The REW lists Old French despondre and Occitan desponre beside it.^[7] It is a doublet of dispune, the later borrowing of the same Latin verb.^[1][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record of the verb is the Codex Bratul of 1559–1560, with the sense “to rule, to have power over”.^[2] Its derivative despus “power, rule” is older, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[2][8]

Semantic evolution

The verb belonged to the religious language of the 16th and 17th centuries and then fell out of use.^[3][4] The Codicele Voronețean has „nu ca ceia ce despunru” “not as those who rule” in 1 Peter 5:3.^[5] A text of about 1600 has the body tell the soul „au fost să mă despui, cumu-și despune o doamnă roaba sa” “you should have ruled me as a lady rules her maid”.^[4][5] In Coresi the reflexive means “to settle, to take its place”: „limba despuindu-se întru mădularele noastre” “the tongue, set among our members”.^[5][4]

Its derivatives were also religious words: despuietor “ruler, lord”, often an epithet of God or Christ, despuitoare “lady” for the Virgin, and despuietură “absolute authority”.^[2] Despus also meant “province”, after Old Church Slavonic область (oblastĭ).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – despus “power” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[2][8]
• 1559–1560 – the verb in the Codex Bratul, the first record.^[2]
• c. 1563–1583 – despunru in the Codicele Voronețean.^[5]
• 1566 – despuietor “ruler” in Coresi.^[2]
• 1581 – despuietură “absolute authority” in Coresi's gospel homilies.^[2]
• c. 1600 – „cumu-și despune o doamnă roaba sa”.^[4]
• 1643 – despuitoare for the Virgin in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2]
• 1683 – the adjective despuitoresc in Dosoftei, its only record.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To rule, to govern, to have power over someone or something.^[2][4][3][9]
2. (obsolete, reflexive) To settle, to establish itself.^[5]

Word family

• despuietură
• despuitoresc
• despus
• despuietor
• despuitoare

Related words

• dispune
• Latin dispōnō

Usage notes

The DLR also records despune as a form of dispune, and MDA2 enters it only as that variant.^[4][10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. despune
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. despune
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. despune
5. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. despune
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. dispōnō
7. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2682
8. ^ 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 149:7
9. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. despune
10. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 675