iubire

Forms

iubire f (plural iubiri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of the verb iubi “to love”, used as a noun: from Romanian iubi + -re.^[2][3][1] The verb is from Old Church Slavonic любити (ljubiti, “to love”), from Proto-Slavic *ľubiti.^[4][2][1] Ciorănescu lists the noun among the derivatives of the verb, beside older words for love taken straight from Slavonic, iuboste and libov.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), in Psalm 108:4: „Și puseră spre mere ... uriciuri dereptu iubirea mea” “and they repaid me hatred for my love”.^[3][2][5] Coresi's psalter of 1589 has the same verse and the plural iubiri in Psalm 105:37.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The Bible of 1688 uses the word often.^[7][2] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to render the Slavonic compounds in -любие, such as words for love of friends and of wisdom.^[8] MDA2 records older senses now lost: “choice”, “appetite” and “desire”.^[2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 glosses it with Latin amor and dilectio, and the Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 with Latin amor and caritas, Hungarian szeretet and German Liebe.^[9][10]

Its main modern sense is romantic love, beside dragoste and amor, as in Eminescu's line „Ești iubirea mea dentâi Și visul meu din urmă” “you are my first love and my last dream”.^[3][11] Phrases with de name a passion or attachment: iubire de oameni “love of mankind”, iubire de țară “patriotism”, iubire de sine “self-love”, iubire de bani “greed”.^[3][12][13] MDA2 also records the rare phrase a face iubire “to make love”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – iubirea mea “my love” in the Psaltirea Scheiană, the first record.^[3][5]
• 1589 – the plural iubiri in Coresi's psalter.^[6]
• 1649 – used in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1688 – frequent in the Bucharest Bible.^[7]
• 1801 – in Klein's dictionary, glossed amor, dilectio.^[9]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[10]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives iubire de sine “self-love” and iubire de bani “greed”.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. love between two people; the feeling of being in love, and a love affair.^{[14][2][15][1]}
2. Strong affection, fondness and admiration for someone or something: iubire de țară “love of one's country”.^[14][12]
3. (obsolete) desire, appetite; choice.^[2]

Related words

• iubi
• iubit
• iubitor
• ibovnic
• Old Church Slavonic любити (ljubiti)

Usage notes

Iubire is close in meaning to dragoste and amor, which the dictionaries use to define it.^[14][11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1171
3. ^ 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. iubíre
4. ^ 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. iubi
5. ^ 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 108:4
6. ^ 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 105:37
7. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Esther 4:16
8. ^ 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. iubire
9. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 386
10. ^ 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. 330
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, 555
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 665
13. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 385
14. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 527
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. iubire