durea

Forms

durea (third person doare, subjunctive doară, past participle durut), second conjugation.^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the verb was written дуря.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin doleō (“to be in pain, cause pain”), a verb kept by all the Romance languages.^{[2][3][4][1][5]}

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian dor, Megleno-Romanian doari and Istro-Romanian dǫre.^[3][2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian dolere, Occitan doler, Spanish doler, Portuguese doer and Old French doloir.^[3][5] De Vaan reconstructs Proto-Indo-European *dolh₁éyeti (“to split”), a causative of *delh₁- (“to chop”): pain was felt as being torn apart.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is in a Coresi print of 1566.^[2] The Psaltirea Scheiană has it in Isaiah's canticle (Isaiah 26:17): „ca ceaia ce durea apropia-se a naște și în durearea sa striga” “like a woman in pain who is near to giving birth and cries out in her pains”.^[9][10][4]

Semantic evolution

Romanian built the verb, as the other Romance languages did, with the body part as subject and the person in the accusative: mă doare capul “my head aches”, where Latin used the dative.^[2][11][8] In the old language a person could also be the subject, “to be in pain” or “to cause pain”, a use that lives on in poetry.^[4][10]

The moral sense “to grieve, distress” is old: mă doare inima “my heart aches” for someone.^[10][12] The phrase nu-l doare capul “his head doesn't ache” means that someone doesn't care.^[12] In Aromanian the verb also came to mean “to desire, love”.^[6]

Timeline

• 1559–1560 – the noun durere “pain” in the Codex Bratul.^[2]
• 1566 – the verb in a Coresi print, the first record.^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – durea and durearea in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4][9]
• 1786 – dureros “painful”.^[2]
• 1839 – durelnic “grieved; painful”.^[2]
• 1885 – durime “pain” in Teodorescu's folk poetry.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (of a body part, wound or blow) To hurt, ache, cause someone physical pain: mă doare capul “I have a headache”.^[12][1]
2. To make someone feel pain;^[12] a atinge pe cineva unde-l doare “to touch someone where it hurts”, to raise something unpleasant on purpose.^[12]
3. (figurative) To cause someone mental suffering, to grieve or distress;^[12][4] a-l durea inima “to be sorry, grieved”.^[12][4]

Word family

• durere
• dureros
• durime
• îndurera
• nedureros

Related words

• duroare
• dor

Usage notes

The verb is used almost only in the third person: doare, dor.^[12] Nu-l doare (nici) capul means that someone does not care at all.^[12][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. durea
3. ^ 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. durea
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 775
5. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2721
6. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 412
7. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 114
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. durea
10. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. durea
11. ^ Ungureanu, Dan (2024), Istoria limbii române, Chișinău: Cartier, p. 327
12. ^ 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. 337