grijă

Forms

grijă f (plural griji)^[1] The variant grije (plural griji, rarely grije): „Întrară în grije să nu-și isprăvească deregătoria Ardealului” “they began to worry that he might gain the governorship of Transylvania” (Nicolae Costin).^[2][3] Scriban calls grijă the eastern and grije the western form.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Bulgarian грижа (griža, “worry, care”), as MDA2, DEX, Wiktionary and the Bulgarian etymological dictionary give it.^[3][5][1][6] Tiktin compares the Bulgarian word and derives it from Old Church Slavonic грыжа (gryža);^[2][7][4][8] Cihac, Scriban and Șăineanu took the Romanian word from Slavonic.^[2][7][4][8]

The Slavic noun continues Proto-Slavic *gryža, formed on *gryzti (“to gnaw”).^[6][1] Its first sense was bodily pain: Russian грыжа (gryža, “hernia”), Serbo-Croatian griža (“stomach pains”) and Slovene griža (“dysentery”).^[9][6] The Bulgarian dictionary explains the shift from “physical pain” to “troubled mind”, as in печал (pečal).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is grije in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (early 16th century), at Psalm 9:9.^[10] Tiktin cites the Codicele Voronețean at 1 Peter 5:7.^[2] MDA2 dates it from Varlaam's Cazania of 1643.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is worry, anxiety at the thought of something bad; the senses care, attention and concern for someone or something grew out of it.^[5][3] The chroniclers used it for fear of an enemy: Miron Costin writes of Stephen staying in Roman „cu mare grije de tătari” “in great fear of the Tatars”.^[2]

Many phrases formed around it: a avea grijă “to take care”, fără grijă “without care”, a lăsa în grija cuiva “to leave in someone's care”.^[5][3] The plural grijile also meant the commemorations of the dead, a use Scriban calls old and Wiktionary Moldavian.^[4][8][1] Tiktin records the proverb Copii mici, griji mici; copii mari, griji mari “small children, small worries; big children, big worries”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – grije in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[10]
• c. 1551–1558 – grije in the Psaltirea Voroneț.^[11]
• c. 1563–1583 – grije in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1643 – grijă in Varlaam's Cazania.^[3]
• 1649 – grije in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1688 – grijă and grije in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. worry, fear or unease caused by a possible danger or trouble;^[5][3] a intra la griji “to start to worry”.^[5][3] Also: the cause of someone's worry.^[5][3]
2. care, special interest or concern for someone or something; attention: a avea grijă de copii “to look after the children”;^[5][3] a avea grijă să… “to be careful to…”;^[5][3] a lăsa în grija cuiva “to leave in someone's care”.^[5][3]
3. (Moldavia, chiefly in the plural, dated) A memorial service for the dead.^[1][4]

Word family

• griji
• grijuliu
• îngriji
• îngrijora
• negrijă

Related words

• grijanie
• Bulgarian грижа (griža)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gríjă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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 e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 576
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 450
6. ^ a b c d Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 282
7. ^ a b Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 128
8. ^ a b c Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 284
9. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
10. ^ 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 9:9
11. ^ 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 106:39
12. ^ 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. grije
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iov 11:18