evada

Forms

evada (third-person singular present evadează, past participle evadat), 1st conjugation.^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French évader, with Latin ēvādō (“to go out, escape”) as a second source in DEX 2009, DELR and the neologism dictionaries.^[2][3][4] The DLR names the French verb as the source and compares the Latin one.^[5] The Latin verb is formed from ex- and vādō (“to go, advance”).^[3] In French the verb is a learned borrowing of the Latin one, used from about 1375, first in the sense “to escape from something”; the reflexive form, “to break out of a place of confinement” appears in 1492.^[6]

Graur groups the word with the other Romanian descendants of the Latin verb: vad (a ford), inherited from vadum, and the neologism invada.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to 1794, in a calendar (Calendariu), and the DLR quotes the passage: a man seeking the means „de a se evada... din monastire” “to escape from the monastery”, with the verb still reflexive as in French.^[8][5] The DLR labels this reflexive use old and rare.^[5] DELR gives a later first date, 1871, from Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is a prisoner's escape from prison, a camp or custody;^[5][2] Caragiale wrote of someone who a evadat de la cazarma vânătorilor “escaped from the riflemen's barracks”.^[5][2] From this came the colloquial sense “to get away, slip off”, which the DLRLC illustrates from Camil Petrescu.^[9]

MDA2 and DELR also record figurative uses, escaping from a moral difficulty, a mood or an influence, and an old, rare transitive use “to pass over an obstacle”.^[8][3] In sports the verb is used of a competitor who breaks away from a group.^[8] The noun evaziune belongs to the same family in DELR, recorded mainly in the phrase evaziune fiscală “tax evasion”, and the derivative evazionism (1936) names both tax evasion and escapism.^[3]

Timeline

• 1794 – a se evada din monastire “to escape from the monastery” in a calendar, the first record.^[8][5]
• 1871 – the verb in Laurian and Massim's dictionary.^[3]
• 1929 – Șăineanu glosses it “to escape stealthily”.^[10]
• 1930 – evazionist “tax evader”.^[3]
• 1931 – CADE defines it as escaping from prison and marks it as French.^[11]
• 1936 – evazionism “tax evasion; escapism”.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, of prisoners) To escape from prison or from custody: Doi deținuți au evadat noaptea trecută.^[2][5]
2. (by extension, colloquial) To get away, to run off.^[2][4]
3. (figurative) To escape from a difficult situation, a mood or an influence.^[8][3]
4. (sports) To break away from a group of competitors.^[8]

Related words

• evaziune
• evaziv
• evazionism
• invada
• vad
• French évader

References

1. ^ 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. 365
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. evada
4. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. evada
5. ^ 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. evada
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 103
8. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 845
9. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 227
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 235
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. evada