exploda

Forms

exploda (third-person singular present explodează, past participle explodat) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian esplodere or directly borrowed from Latin explōdō, as DEX, MDA2 and the DLR give it.^[2][3][4] DELR adds German explodieren as a model, and DEX compares French exploser.^[2][3][4][5] The neologism dictionaries name only the Latin verb.^[6][7] The Latin verb, formed on plaudō (“to clap, applaud”), meant “to drive an actor off the stage with noise and jeering”.^[5]

DELR traces the sense “to blow up”: the scholarly Latin of the 17th century used the verb for cannon balls and bursting gases, the intransitive use “to explode” seems to have appeared first in English and passed from there into German and Italian, and the French verb, formed on explosion, may have spread it too.^[5] Nocentini also says the Italian sense spread from the French verb.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1852, in the Italian-looking form esploda.^[5] MDA2 and the DLR cite a periodical of 1854 that reports how several allied ships suffered when their stores of powder “au esplodat” “blew up”.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

The physical sense came first: explosives, shells, mines and later reactors that burst with heat, light and noise.^[4][5] A device that bursts from its own pressure and a volcano that erupts followed.^[3][2] The figurative sense is a person who bursts out in anger or speech.^[9][5]

The form exploza, recorded in 1922 in Rădulescu-Codin, the DLR explains by the influence of the noun explozie and DELR derives from French exploser.^[4][5] The family is older than the verb: explozie is recorded from 1830 and explozibil from 1852.^[5]

Timeline

• 1852 – esploda, the first record of the verb, and explozibil “explosive”.^[5]
• 1854 – au esplodat “blew up” in a report on allied ships.^[3][4]
• 1893 – explodent “explosive”, later explodant.^[5]
• 1922 – the variant exploza in Rădulescu-Codin.^[5][4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive) Of explosives, shells, reactors and the like: to explode, to break up violently with a sudden release of heat and gas; to go off.^[2][1]
2. (transitive) To set off an explosion.^[2][3]
3. (intransitive) Of a device holding gas under pressure: to burst from the pressure inside.^[2]
4. (intransitive) Of a volcano: to erupt suddenly.^[2][3]
5. (figurative) Of a person: to burst out suddenly and violently in a discussion; to flare up: Când a auzit vestea, a explodat.^[2][3]

Word family

• explodant
• exploza
• explozibil
• explozie
• exploziv
• explozivitate
• explozor
• implozie

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 372
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 862
4. ^ 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. exploda
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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. exploda
6. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. exploda
7. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. exploda
8. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
9. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. exploda