lovitură

Forms

lovitură f (plural lovituri)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian lovi + -tură, from the verb “to hit” with the suffix that makes nouns of action and result.^[2][3][4][1] The verb is from Old Church Slavonic ловити (loviti, “to catch, to hunt”).^[5][2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and the DLR date the first record to Eustratie's Pravila of 1632.^[4][3] In Miron Costin's chronicle (about 1675) it is the blow of a weapon: „L-au lovit în cap, den care lovitură au fost Vasile vornicul multă vreme rănit” “they struck him on the head, and by that blow Vasile the vornic was long wounded”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In the 17th century the word also stood for a wound: the Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss it with рана “wound”.^[6] Old texts use it for the hit of an arrow or bullet and the shot of a firearm, and MDA2 lists the range and the path of a shot among its old senses.^[3][2]

Figurative senses followed: a heavy blow of fate, a sudden military strike, a move in a game of chess or cards.^[7][4] Set phrases name sudden events: lovitură de stat “coup d'état”, which Costinescu's dictionary of 1870 gives as lovire de stat,^[8][4] lovitură de teatru “coup de théâtre” and lovitură de grație “finishing blow”.^[7] In slang lovitură is a robbery or a sudden great success,^[9] and a da lovitura is to pull off an unexpected success.^[7]

Timeline

• 1632 – first record, in Eustratie's Pravila.^[4][3]
• 17th century – glossed “wound” in Slavonic–Romanian lexicons.^[6]
• c. 1675 – the blow of a weapon, in Miron Costin.^[3]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible.^[10]
• 1801 – glossed Latin ictus, plaga in Klein's dictionary.^[11]
• 1825 – in the Lexicon de la Buda, glossed Latin percussio, ictus and German Schlag.^[12]
• 1870 – lovire de stat “coup d'état” in Costinescu.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A blow, hit or kick; the noise of a hard blow;^[7][1] lovitură de grație “finishing blow”.^[7][1]
2. (figurative) A blow of fate: grief, misfortune.^[7]
3. (military) A sudden heavy attack on the enemy; a bold surprise attack; the firing of a gun and its effect.^[7]
4. In phrases: lovitură de stat “coup d'état”, lovitură de teatru “sudden surprising turn”, lovitură de trăsnet “bolt from the blue”.^[7]
5. (sports) A stroke or kick of the ball in a game.^[7]

Related words

• lovi
• lovire

Usage notes

A da lovitura means “to pull off a big unexpected success”.^[7] In engineering lovitură de berbec is water hammer, the rise in pressure when a valve shuts suddenly.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1394
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. lovitură
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. lovitură
5. ^ 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. lovi
6. ^ 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. lovitură
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 601
8. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 553
9. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. lovitură
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Exodus 19:13
11. ^ 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. 391
12. ^ 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. 359