jefui

Forms

jefui (third-person singular present jefuiește, past participle jefuit); 4th conjugation^[1][2] Old and regional forms are jecui, jăcui (Moldavia), jăhui, jăfui and jăui (Banat): the Bible of 1688 has „să piarză neamul jidovesc ... și să jăhuiască averile lor” “to destroy the Jewish people and plunder their goods”.^[3][4][5]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian jaf + -ui, the verb of jaf (“plunder”).^[1][5][6][2] DA also considered a Ruthenian verb for “to plunder” as its source, and compared Hungarian zsákol (“to plunder”).^[4] The variants with /k/ and /h/ follow the old variants of the noun.^[6][4]

The noun is from Polish żak (“plunder”) or, through Hungarian, from Hungarian zsák (“sack”), both from Italian sacco (“sack, sack of a town”);^[6][7][2] Ciorănescu finds neither path clear, and explains the change of /k/ to /h/ and /f/ within Romanian.^[6][7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is jecuit in a document of the early 17th century, published by Iorga: robbers found a man asleep, cut him and robbed him, leaving him for dead.^[4] Tiktin dates it about 1600.^[3] In printed books it first appears in Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, „Jecuiră-l” “they robbed him”.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The verb meant to take by force the goods of a person or a place, as invaders, armies and robbers do, often with burning and killing;^[4] DA notes that it was felt as more forceful than prăda.^[4] The chroniclers use it for the plundering of churches, houses and travellers.^[4] Transferred senses are to exploit, to squeeze money out of someone, and, in Șăineanu, to plagiarize an author; an old use in a Herodotus translation means to carry off a woman.^[4][5] A forestry code also used it for the stripping of forests.^[4] The form jefui won out over the old jecui and jăcui.^[1][4]

Timeline

• c. 1600 – jecuit “robbed” in a document of the early 17th century.^[4][3]
• 1643 – jecuiră in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4][5]
• 1688 – jefuiră and jăhui in the Bucharest Bible.^[8][3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To rob, plunder: to steal money or goods in large amounts, usually with violence; to pradă.^[1][5]
2. (transitive) To fleece: to squeeze money or goods out of someone by force or by fraud; to jecmăni.^[1][9]

Word family

• jefuitor
• jefuială

Related words

• jecmăni

References

1. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 564
2. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
3. ^ 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. jefui
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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. jefui
5. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1278
6. ^ a b c d 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. jaf
7. ^ a b DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 563
8. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exodus 12:36
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. jefui