dezbăra

Forms

a se dezbăra (third-person singular present dezbară, past participle dezbărat), 1st conjugation^[1] The present is dezbar, also dezbăr: dezberi “you rid yourself” occurs in M. I. Caragiale and Odobescu.^[2][3] Older texts write desbăra and disbăra: „Să ne disbărăm de grijele familiei” “let us rid ourselves of family cares” (Fătu).^[4][5]

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain: DEX 2009 and the DLR call it unknown.^[2][4][6] The explanation DELR names first makes it a formation from Romanian dez- + baieră (“string, tie”), like dezbăiera “to untie”, as Hasdeu, Bogrea, Pușcariu and Ciorănescu held;^[7][1] DELR notes that dezbăiera is recorded later, and that some of its senses may come from confusion with this verb.^[7][1]

Skok derived it from Vulgar Latin *disvēlō (“to unveil”), from vēlō (“to cover”), from vēlum (“sail, cloth”); the REW gives it under that form, after Pușcariu, comparing Albanian zbuloj (“to uncover”).^[7][8][1] Other proposals are a link with Italian sbarazzare and French débarrasser (Scriban), a Latin compound with a Greek base (Pascu), and Old Church Slavonic брати (brati, “to take”), which Cihac proposed and Tiktin compares.^[7][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is Eustratie's Pravila of 1632, in the form dezberá, with the sense “to separate, to free”.^[7][6] Miron Costin's chronicle uses it of the Poles escaping the Turks: „Și așa s-au dezbărat într-acea zi de oarba năvală a turcilor” “and so on that day they got clear of the blind onslaught of the Turks”.^[6][4]

Semantic evolution

The old senses are “to separate, to set free, to get rid of”, transitive and reflexive: Cantemir has „pre corb de la acesta lucru a-l dezbăra” “to turn the raven away from this plan”.^[7][6] A document of 1785 uses it of separating a Moldavian from a Gypsy woman.^[4] Today it is mostly reflexive and means giving up a bad habit, a sense the transitive “to break someone of a habit” shares.^[7][2][6] In Argeș it means “to break oneself of a bad habit”.^[9]

Timeline

• 1632 – dezberá in Eustratie's Pravila, the first record.^[7][6]
• c. 1675 – s-au dezbărat in Miron Costin's chronicle.^[6]
• 1705 – in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică.^[6]
• 1785 – desbăreze in a document printed in the Uricariul.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To give up a bad habit, to break oneself of it.^[2][1]
2. (reflexive) To manage to get rid of someone or something bothersome.^[2][1]
3. (transitive) To make someone give up a habit;^[5][6] (dated) to separate, to free.^[5][6]

Related words

• baieră
• dezbăiera
• dezvăța

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 307
3. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 93
4. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. dezbăra
5. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 692
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. dezbăra
7. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. dezbăra
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Constantinescu, Grigore; Constantinescu, Eugenia (2014), Glosar. Arealul etnocultural Argeș-Muscel, p. 40