gripă

Forms

gripă f (plural gripe)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French grippe (“influenza”), a 19th-century medical neologism.^[2][3][1] DEX, MDA2 and the MDN name German Grippe as a second source beside the French word, an etymology with more than one source.^[4][5][6] The French noun is formed on gripper (“to seize”).^[1] Scriban traces that verb to a Low German grīpen, the counterpart of German greifen (“to grasp”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1832, with the medical sense “influenza”.^[2] In the early 20th century the CADE still described it as an epidemic catarrh of the lungs and marked it as a French word.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The word has kept its medical meaning: older dictionaries describe a kind of epidemic catarrh of the chest, the modern ones a viral infection of the respiratory tract with fever and aching muscles.^[9][4] By extension it names any seasonal illness with fever and a running nose, much like a common cold.^[4][5][1]

The press of the 2000s formed new phrases for animal and pandemic strains: gripa aviară or gripa puilor “bird flu” in 2004, and gripa porcină “swine flu” and gripa nouă “the new flu” in 2009.^[10]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – the first record, in the medical sense.^[2]
• 1913 – the first volume of the Academy dictionary includes the word;^[5] MDA2 takes this as its first record.^[5]
• 1931 – the CADE defines it as an epidemic lung catarrh and marks it as French.^[8]
• 2004 – gripa aviară and gripa puilor “bird flu” in the press.^[10]
• 2009 – gripa porcină “swine flu” and gripa nouă “the new flu”.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. influenza, flu: a contagious viral disease of the respiratory tract, with fever, general weakness and pains in the muscles and head.^[4][5][1]
2. By extension, any seasonal illness with fever and a nasal or bronchial catarrh; a cold: A stat o săptămână acasă cu o gripă.^[4][1]

Usage notes

Scriban lists a separate, rare gripă “griffin”, which he takes from Greek, with a record in the Bible of 1819.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. gripă
3. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. gripă
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 451
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1024
6. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. gripă
7. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 577
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. gripă
9. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 284
10. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. gripă