fierbe

Forms

fierbe (third-person singular present fierbe, past participle fiert, third-person subjunctive fiarbă) 3rd conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin fervĕre (“to boil”), the third-conjugation form of the Latin verb.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} De Vaan notes that ⟨fervere⟩ is the usual form from Plautus to Virgil and ⟨fervēre⟩ the later one.^[6] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *bʰeru- (“to be hot, boil”), with Irish and Welsh cognates.^[6][1]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian herbu and Megleno-Romanian ierb.^[2][7][8] Its Romance cognates are Spanish hervir and Portuguese ferver; Italian fervere is a learned loan.^[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is fierbea “was boiling” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalm 104:29).^[11] Tiktin cites the same psalm in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[4] MDA2 gives the Palia of 1582.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The verb kept the Latin sense, of liquids that bubble with heat, and was used of the pot as well as its contents.^[12][13] It also meant cooking food in boiling water and, transitively, boiling laundry.^[12] Fermenting must “boils” too: the 1688 Bible has „must ce fiearbe” “must that ferments”.^[13]

Figurative senses grew early: a sea or river churning with waves, a place teeming with people, and a person seething with anger or anxiety.^[12][13] Transitively it came to mean tormenting someone;^[4][12] Caragiale writes „m-a fiert fără apă toată seara” “he boiled me without water all evening”.^[4][12]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – fierbea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[11]
• 1582 – the Palia.^[3]
• 1649 – the participle fiert glosses Slavonic kolivo in Mardarie's lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – fierbi and fiert in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, transitive) To boil: of a liquid, to turn into vapour with bubbles under heat; to bring to the boil.^[12][1]
2. (intransitive) To ferment.^[12][3]
3. (intransitive, figurative) Of the sea or a river, to churn with loud waves.^[12][3]
4. (intransitive) Of food, to cook in boiling liquid;^[12] (transitive) to boil something: Fierbe ouăle cinci minute. “Boil the eggs for five minutes.”^[12]
5. (intransitive, figurative) Of people, to seethe, to be agitated;^[12][4] (transitive) to torment someone.^[12][4]

Word family

• fierbător
• fiert
• fiertoare
• fiertură

Related words

• fierbinte
• răsfierbe
• Aromanian herbu
• Latin ferveō

Usage notes

A-și băga nasul unde nu-i fierbe oala “to stick one's nose where one's pot is not boiling” means meddling in other people's affairs.^[12][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. fierbe
3. ^ 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, 902
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. fiérbe
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București, p. 586
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 154
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 3265
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 104:29
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 392
13. ^ a b c Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. fierbe
14. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. fiert
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Ex 23:19