doborî

Forms

doborî (third-person singular present doboară, past participle doborât) 4th conjugation^[1] The older form oborî appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki: „Derep ce oborrişi gardu ei” “why hast thou broken down her hedge?”.^[2][3]

Etymology

Its source is disputed.^[3][4][5] The DLR derives it borrowed from Bulgarian доборя (doborja, “to defeat in battle, to take possession”), and DELR names the same Bulgarian verb as one possibility, after Mihăilă.^[2][3] DELR's other possibility is an unattested Old Church Slavonic compound of the prefix до- (do-) with Old Church Slavonic оборити (oboriti, “to overthrow”).^[3] Ciorănescu also starts from the Slavonic verb, probably compounded with that prefix, which marks a completed action, after Miklosich and Candrea.^[4]

MDA2 and Wiktionary instead treat it as formed from Romanian d- + oborî.^[5][1] The older verb oborî “to knock down”, now obsolete,^[6] is borrowed from that Old Church Slavonic verb, which meant “to destroy, demolish”.^[3][5][7] DELR traces that verb to орити (oriti, “to tear down, overturn”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The older form oborî is recorded first, about 1500, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, where the psalmist asks why the vine's hedge was broken down.^[3][2][5] DELR dates doborî itself to Dosoftei, 1679, with the sense “to make fall, to knock to the ground”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “to knock down, fell” the verb came to mean “to shoot down” something that flies, “to kill” game and “to overcome” an enemy in battle.^[5][8] Figuratively it means “to overwhelm” (of illness, grief or tiredness) and “to abolish” a state of affairs.^[8][5] In sport it means to beat a record.^[3][8] In Banat and north-western Oltenia it has the sense “to go down”, like coborî.^[3][5] The DLRLC records a regional use for mowing grass.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – oborî (spelled oborrí) in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][5]
• 1679 – doborî in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1682 – the abstract noun oborât, again in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1839 – doborâtor “overwhelming”.^[3]
• 1870 – doborâtură “windfall in a forest”.^[3]
• 1913 – the abstract noun doborât.^[3]
• 1933–1934 – the south-west Transylvanian variant dezborî.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To knock down, to fell: to bring something standing to the ground, to overturn or demolish it.^[8][5][1]
2. To make something fall from where it hangs or is fixed; to shoot down something flying.^[8][5]
3. To defeat, subdue or destroy an enemy;^[8][1] (figurative) to do away with a situation or idea.^[8][1]
4. (figurative) To overwhelm: Boala l-a doborât. “The illness laid him low.”^[8][5]
5. (sport) To beat a record.^[8][3]
6. (regional, Banat and Oltenia) To go down, to descend.^[3][5]

Word family

• doborât
• doborâtor
• doborâtură

Related words

• oborî
• coborî

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. doborî
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s 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. doborî
4. ^ a b 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. doborî
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 738
6. ^ 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. oborî
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 324
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 142