luptă

Forms

luptă f (plural lupte)^[1] MDA2 records an old variant lupt.^[2]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin lucta (“wrestling, struggle”), a noun formed on lūctor (“to wrestle”).^{[3][2][4][5][1][6]} The Latin verb is a frequentative, which de Vaan derives from a participle meaning “bent” and compares with Ancient Greek λύγος (lúgos, “withy”).^[7] Latin /kt/ became /pt/, as the Lexicon de la Buda already noted (⟨c⟩ changed to ⟨p⟩).^[8]

Its inherited Aromanian cognate is alumtã;^[3][1] DER and Wiktionary take the form ljuftã from or through Albanian luftë, itself a Latin loan.^[3][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian lotta, French lutte, Spanish lucha and Portuguese luta.^[3][6] The verb lupta is a separate inheritance, from the active form of the Latin verb.^[3][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Șerban Coresi's Psalter of 1589, in Psalm 143:1.^[4][10] MDA2's first record is Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of 1649.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is a fight between two people, often wrestling: a se lua la luptă “to come to grips”, and luptă dreaptă “a fair fight”, hand to hand, without weapons or tricks.^[11][2] In the plural it names the sport of wrestling, with lupte clasice or greco-romane “Greco-Roman wrestling” and lupte libere “freestyle wrestling”.^[11][2]

From the duel it widened to an armed clash, a battle, and figuratively to any contest between rivals or forces: luptă electorală “electoral battle”, and, in Marxist usage, luptă de clasă “class struggle”.^[11][12] It also means a strenuous effort to overcome a difficulty.^[13]

Timeline

• 1589 – luptă in Șerban Coresi's Psalter, the first record.^[4][10]
• 1649 – luptă in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[2]
• 1688 – two occurrences in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin lucta and pugna and German Kampf, Ringen.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. A fight between two or more people, usually without weapons, each trying to defeat the other;^[11][2][1] luptă dreaptă “a fair fight”.^[11][2][1]
2. (in the plural) wrestling as a sport: lupte clasice “Greco-Roman wrestling”, lupte libere “freestyle wrestling”.^[11][2]
3. An armed clash between enemy forces, a battle.^[11][12]
4. (figurative) A struggle between rivals or opposing forces to impose their will.^[11][13]
5. A strenuous effort to overcome a difficulty or to make a living.^[13]

Word family

• lupta
• luptător
• luptaș

Related words

• Aromanian alumtã
• Latin lūctor

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1408
3. ^ 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. luptă
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. luptă
5. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 86
6. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5147
7. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
8. ^ 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. 364
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 5148
10. ^ 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 143:1
11. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 606
12. ^ a b Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 762
13. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. luptă
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Înțelepciunea lui Solomon 14:22