groapă

Forms

groapă f (plural gropi)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is disputed, and Ciorănescu calls it unknown.^[2] Most dictionaries tie it to Albanian gropë (“pit, hole, grave”): the DA derives the Romanian word from it, Tiktin thinks the Albanian word its probable source, and DEX and MDA2 only compare the two.^[3][4][5][6] NODEX calls it a native word.^[7] Wiktionary takes it as probably a substrate word akin to the Albanian one, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrebʰ- (“to dig, scratch”).^[1]

Ciorănescu lists the earlier views: a native word for Miklosich; from Albanian for Meyer, Philippide, Capidan and Rosetti; from Old Church Slavonic гробъ (grobŭ, “grave”) and Bulgarian гроб (grob) for Pascu and Conev;^[2] Rohlfs and Skok compared Calabrian words for “hole” and explained them from Ancient Greek τρύπη (trúpē, “hole”).^[2] Ciorănescu himself thinks a Slavonic loan possible, which would first have given a masculine noun with the plural gropi, the feminine singular being rebuilt from that plural; the Slavic word, close to German Grube (“pit”), would also explain the Albanian one, which is hard to derive from Slavic directly and could then come from Romanian.^[2] He adds that a Romance origin should not be ruled out.^[2] Tiktin too thinks the Albanian word may rest on Old Church Slavonic.^[4] Orel takes the Albanian word as a loan, from Old High German and probably through Romanian.^[8]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian groapã and Megleno-Romanian groapă.^[2][9][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the place name Groapa in 1520.^[4] As a common noun it is in the oldest Romanian psalter, the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, and in all the later 16th-century psalters.^[11] The DA's earliest quotations show the sense “grave”: Coresi's psalter has „Schimbat fui celor ce deșting în groapă” “I was counted among those who go down into the grave”, and the Tetraevanghel of 1574 has „spre groapa mea face” “she does it for my burial”, of the ointment poured on Christ.^[3][6]

Semantic evolution

From the start the word meant both “grave” and “pit, hole in the ground”; the 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to render Old Church Slavonic гробъ (grobŭ) “grave” and also words for a chasm and a storage bin.^[12][3] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) gives “pit” first and “grave” second, with special pits for ice.^[13] From “grave” come the figurative sense “death” and many phrases: a fi cu un picior în groapă “to have one foot in the grave”, a băga pe cineva în groapă “to drive someone to the grave”.^[6][5] A pit set as a trap gave the figurative “snare” and the phrase a săpa cuiva groapa “to plot someone's downfall”.^[6][3]

The DA also records the regional senses “pit for storing grain” and “flat stretch on a mountain slope”.^[3][2] Romanian groapă passed into Bulgarian dialects as гро̀па (gròpa) “lime pit”, “offal pit”.^[14] Slang has a newer sense: the spoon drug users heat opium or heroin in.^[15]

Timeline

• 1520 – Groapa, a place name.^[4]
• early 16th century – groapă in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 56:9).^[11]
• 1570 – seven occurrences in Coresi's psalter.^[16]
• 1574 – “burial, grave” in the Tetraevanghel, MDA2's first record.^[6][3]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic “grave” with it.^[12]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible uses it for the pit into which Joseph is thrown (Genesis 37:20).^[17]
• 1825 – “pit” and “grave” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. A pit or deep hole in the ground, dug or natural.^[5][6][1]
2. A pit for a particular use: groapă de var “lime pit”, groapă de nisip “sandpit”, also a sandpit where children play.^[6]
3. A grave; by extension, death.^[5][6]
4. (figurative) A trap or snare.^[6]
5. (regional, dated) A pit in the ground for storing grain.^[2][3]
6. (slang) A spoon in which drug users heat opium or heroin.^[15]

Word family

• gropiță
• gropană
• gropos
• gropar
• îngropa
• îngropător
• îngropăciune
• dezgropa

Related words

• Albanian gropë
• Aromanian groapã

Usage notes

The proverb Cine sapă groapa altuia cade singur în ea “who digs a pit for another falls into it himself” is old and common.^[4][3] A da în gropi (de prost ce e) “to fall into pits (from stupidity)” is said of a very stupid person.^[5][6] The plural is gropi;^[18] Scriban also records a rarer groape.^[18]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. groapă
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. groapă
4. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. groapă
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 451
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1025
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. groapă
8. ^ Orel, Vladimir (1998), Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden / Boston / Köln: Brill, p. 124
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 503
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 145
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 56:9
12. ^ a b 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. groapă
13. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 246
14. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 285
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. groapă
16. ^ 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 27:1
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gen 37:20
18. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 577