grevă

Forms

grevă f (plural greve)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French grève (“strike”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French word first meant a stretch of sand and gravel on a shore; the strike sense comes from the Place de Grève, the square on the bank of the Seine in Paris where workers without work gathered to be hired.^[6][4][7][8] The shore word goes back to Vulgar Latin *grava (“gravel”), probably of pre-Latin origin.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the dictionaries at hand, Șăineanu's of 1929 defines it as a coalition of workers who agree to stop work, with French grève beside it.^[9] MDA2 gives the DA as its first record, which explains it as an agreed stoppage of work by workers or employees to obtain better conditions.^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In French faire grève is recorded from 1805 and gave rise to the new noun.^[6] Romanian took over the phrases a fi în grevă and a se pune în grevă.^[4][8] The dictionaries of the 1950s defined it in the terms of the class struggle, as a form of the proletariat's fight in capitalist countries, and the DLRM described greva foamei as a protest of political prisoners.^[10][11] DEX 2009 defines it neutrally, as a collective stoppage of work by employees to obtain their demands.^[2] Newer phrases are grevă japoneză, a protest in which the strikers keep working but wear armbands, after French grève japonaise, and grevă perlată, after French grève perlée.^[12][3]

Timeline

• 1929 – grevă in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[9]
• 1931 – CADE defines it as an agreement among workers to leave work together.^[13]
• 1987 – grevă perlată in the press.^[12]
• 1995 – grevă japoneză in the press.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A strike: an organised, collective stoppage of work by employees to win economic, social or political demands.^[2][3][1]
2. greva foamei: a hunger strike, refusing food as a protest.^[2][3]
3. grevă japoneză: a symbolic strike in which the employees go on working but wear armbands to show a labour dispute.^[3][12]

Word family

• grevist

Related words

• French grève

Usage notes

Common verb phrases are a declara grevă, a face grevă and a fi în grevă.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 450
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, 1023
4. ^ a b c d 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. grevă
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. grevă
6. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. grevă
8. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 576
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 284
10. ^ Academia Republicii Populare Romîne (1958), Dicționarul limbii romîne moderne, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. grevă
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 2, 416
12. ^ a b c d Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. grevă
13. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. grevă