distra

Forms

distra (third-person singular present distrează, past participle distrat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French distraire, according to Ciorănescu, the DELR, DEX 2009 and Wiktionary.^[2][3][4][1] Tiktin gives Italian distrarre, and MDA2 and the DLR name both languages.^[5][6][7] Graur notes that no other verb of the first conjugation was made directly from a French verb in ⟨-re⟩, and suggests a French model adapted with the help of Italian, or a back-formation from the adjective distrat, heard from French distrait.^[8] He repeats the second view in 1980.^[9]

French borrowed the verb in 1377 from Latin distrahō (“to pull apart”), made of dis- and trahō (“to pull”), and shaped it after traire.^[10][3] The Italian word, from the same Latin verb, is recorded from the early 14th century.^[11][12] Romanian also has the doublet distrage, from the same French verb, refashioned after trage.^[3][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The DELR's first record is in I. Golescu's Condica, about 1832, in the old sense “to distract”.^[3][6] The DLR quotes an older text, which it dates to the early 18th century, about boyars who would try to distract the prince: „să-l distreze şi să facă sgomot mult încât el să n-auză articolile jurământului” “to distract him and make much noise so that he would not hear the articles of the oath”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “to draw someone's attention away”, followed the French verb and is now rare.^[7][4] From “to take someone's mind off his worries” the verb came to mean “to amuse, entertain”, and reflexive a se distra “to have fun, enjoy oneself”, which is now its main use.^[4][13][5] Eminescu used it more widely, of keeping public opinion busy with new undertakings.^[7]

The derivatives came largely from French too: distracție in 1814, distrat about 1832 and distractiv in 1883.^[3]

Timeline

• early 18th century – să-l distreze “to distract him” in a text quoted by the DLR.^[7]
• 1814 – diștracție, a variant of distracție.^[3]
• c. 1832 – distra and distract (for distrat) in Golescu's Condica.^[3]
• 1847 – the doublet distrage in Heliade-Rădulescu.^[3]
• 1883 – distractiv “entertaining”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To have fun, enjoy oneself;^[4][6] (transitive) to entertain, amuse: ne-am distrat de minune la petrecere “we had a wonderful time at the party”.^[4][6]
2. (transitive, rare) To distract, to draw someone's attention away; distrage.^[4][6]

Word family

• distractiv
• distracție
• distrat

Related words

• French distraire

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. distra
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. distra
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 322
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. distra
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 731
7. ^ 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. distra
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. distra
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 104
10. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
11. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
12. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. distra