exersa

Forms

exersa (third-person singular present exersează, past participle exersat) 1st conjugation^[1] Old texts have many variants: eczerța „trebue să-și eczerțeze cineva puterile cele sufletești și trupești” “one must exercise the powers of soul and body” (Buznea), esersa and exerți „le vei exerți talanturile” “you will exercise their talents” (Pleșoianu, 1831).^[2][3][4] In Transylvania the variants exerțelui and exerțirui followed German exerzieren.^[3][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French exercer, according to DEX, Wiktionary and the neologism dictionaries.^[5][1][6][7] MDA2 adds Latin exerceō as a second source, and the DLR also names German exerzieren.^[4][2] DELR, which treats the verb in the family of exercițiu, takes the verb and most variants from French, the variants exerțelui and exerți from Latin and German, and exerțirui from German alone.^[3]

The French verb comes from the Latin one, first as Old French essercier (1121–1134), later reshaped after the Latin.^[8] The Latin verb is formed ex- and arceō (“to enclose, ward off”), and meant “to train by practice, exercise”.^[9] Graur lists it with exercita among the Romanian words of the family of arca (“chest”).^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is the variant exerțelui on the title page of a book of Țichindeal (1808); the form exersa itself appears in 1835.^[3] MDA2 dates the word from Pleșoianu's 1831 translation of Fénelon's Telemachus, where it means to exercise a person's faculties.^[4][2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was to train someone's body, mind or faculties through exercise, and then reflexively to train oneself.^[2][4] In the 19th century the verb also meant to exercise a right or authority and to practise a trade or profession, senses since taken over by exercita;^[2][4] Eminescu still writes of rights that „le vom exersa”.^[2][4] The musical sense, to practise on an instrument or to rehearse a difficult piece, is recorded from CADE (1931) and is now the main one.^[11][12][6]

Timeline

• 1808 – the variant exerțelui in Țichindeal.^[3]
• 1827 – the variant exerța in Buznea.^[3]
• 1831 – exerți “to exercise (talents)” in Pleșoianu's Telemachus.^[4][3]
• 1835 – the form exersa.^[3]
• 1931 – the musical sense “to practise”, in CADE.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive and transitive) To practise, do exercises: Exersează la pian în fiecare seară.^[5][13]
2. (transitive) To rehearse a piece of music or a dance figure, repeating its difficult passages.^[12][4]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To train the body, the memory or a skill through exercise.^[2][4][1]

Related words

• exercita
• exercițiu
• French exercer

Usage notes

The word is pronounced with /gz/: eg-zer-sa.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. exersa
3. ^ 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. exercițiu
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 856
5. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 369
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
12. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 235
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional