irosi

Forms

irosi (third-person singular present irosește, past participle irosit), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

Ciorănescu takes it probably from Romanian afierosi (“to dedicate; to squander”), with the loss of initial /a/ seen in acoperi beside coperi, and with /f/ lost through /h/ before /i/, as in ⟨hi⟩ for fi; the older forms ⟨firosi⟩, ⟨fierosi⟩ and ⟨ierosi⟩ are variants.^[2] MDA2 and Wiktionary also connect it with that verb, and DEX with its variant fierosi.^[3][1][4] The older verb is from Modern Greek ἀφιερώνω (afieróno, “to dedicate”);^[5] Ciorănescu sees its sense “to squander” as a natural development of “to dedicate without reason”, where the DA saw irony.^[5]

Cihac, followed by the DA and Scriban, took it from φυραίνω (firéno, “to waste away, shrink”), and compared Albanian firosem; the DA accepts this only if the form with ⟨f⟩ is the oldest.^[6][2] Ciorănescu finds it less fitting in form and meaning.^[2] Tiktin suggests that it may be the same word as ierosi “to consecrate”;^[7][2] Ciorănescu finds this unlikely, since that verb never had popular currency.^[7][2] NODEX calls the origin unknown.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and the DA quote I. Ionescu (1845) on short straw: if the knots of the sheaves do not hold, much grain is shaken out and wasted, „multă pâne să scutură și să irosăște”.^[7][6] A derivative is older: firoseală “waste” is in a document of 1786.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The DA lists two main senses: to lose, waste or scatter little by little, mostly of money and goods, and, of liquids, to trickle away or dry up: „Nu se irosise încă apa de pe pământ” “the water had not yet drained from the earth”.^[6] Dictionaries of the late 19th and early 20th century label it Moldavian: Damé translates Creangă's vaca îmi irosea ogrinjii din căruță as “the cow was pulling out the leftover hay”.^[9][10][11] The general sense “to waste” has since become standard, with a figurative reflexive use, “to spend great effort to no purpose”.^[4][3] MDA2 also records a regional sense, of houses, “to crumble, collapse”.^[3]

Timeline

• 1786 – firoseală “waste” in a document.^[6]
• 1835 – the abstract noun ierosire “waste” in a document.^[6]
• 1845 – the verb, in I. Ionescu.^[7][6]
• 1893–1895 – Damé records it as Moldavian.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, reflexive) To waste, to squander; to be wasted, to be used up for nothing: Și-a irosit toți banii pe jocuri.^[4][3][1]
2. (reflexive, figurative) To spend great and useless effort on something.^[4][3][1]
3. (reflexive, dated) Of liquids, to trickle away, to seep out.^[3][6]
4. (reflexive, regional) Of houses, to collapse.^[3]

Word family

• irosire
• iroseală

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. irosi
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1165
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 525
5. ^ a b 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. afierosi
6. ^ 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. irosi
7. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. irosi
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. irosi
9. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. 1
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 343
11. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. irosi