livra

Forms

livra (third-person singular present livrează, past participle livrat) 1st conjugation^[1] An old, rare variant lifra is the form of the first record: „Fabricele... nici că ar putea lifra atâta hârtie câtă pot aceste de aici” “the factories... could hardly deliver as much paper as these here can”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French livrer (“to deliver”).^[4][3][2][5] The French verb is from Old French livrer, from Latin līberō (“to set free”), which in popular Latin also meant “to hand over, supply”; it comes from liber (“free”).^[6][1] Graur groups it with the other Romanian words of this Latin family, liber, elibera and livrea.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record, from before 1873 and quoted after Barițiu, has the form lifra, of factories that could hardly deliver as much paper as others.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

In French the verb had the sense “to hand over goods ordered and paid for” from 1281.^[6] Romanian took over only this commercial sense: to supply goods under an agreement, and later services as well.^[2][4] CADE defined it in 1931 as “to hand over, to supply”.^[8] From the late 20th century the DLR also quotes extended uses, of soils that release substances and of a person handed over to a series of sanatoriums.^[2]

Timeline

• before 1873 – lifra “to deliver” in a text quoted after Barițiu, the first record.^[2][3]
• 1931 – livra “to hand over, to supply” in CADE.^[8]
• 1979 – an extended use, of a person delivered over to sanatoriums, in România literară.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To deliver, to supply goods according to an agreement: Firma livrează mobila în trei zile.^[4][2]
2. (transitive) To provide services.^[4][9]
3. (transitive, by extension) To give up, to hand over.^[2]

Related words

• livrare
• livrea
• liber

Usage notes

The present is livrez, livrează, with the suffix -ez.^[2][4] The verb is a different word from the noun livră “pound”, whose articled form is livra.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. livra
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1381
4. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 597
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. livra
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. livra
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. livra
10. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească", București: Cartea Românească, p. 720