mutare

Forms

mutare f (plural mutări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian muta + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun of action.^[2][3][4][1]

The verb goes back to Latin mūtō (“to change”), with cognates in Italian mutare, Catalan mudar, Spanish mudar, Portuguese mudar and French muer.^[5][6] It survives south of the Danube as well: Aromanian mut and Megleno-Romanian mut.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the noun to the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, where mutarea occurs in Psalm 18:5 and mutare in Psalm 25:8.^[2][7] In the psalters it means “dwelling, abode”: the Psaltirea Scheiană has „În soare puse mutarea sa” “in the sun he set his dwelling”, and Candrea glosses the word there as “settlement, lodging”.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “dwelling” went out of use, and the noun came to name the act of moving: departure, removal and transfer.^[9][2] In the 17th century it also meant emigration and exile: the Paraclis of 1639 speaks of „cutremur, mutare și robie” “earthquake, exile and captivity”, and the New Testament of 1648 of „mutarea în Vavilon” “the deportation to Babylon”.^[9] The Pravila of 1814 uses it for the transfer of a property from one owner to another.^[9]

In the pastoral speech of Moldavia, Bucovina and Transylvania it is the moving of a sheepfold from one grazing place to another.^[9][2] It also names a pasture, a sheepfold or a shepherds' shelter there.^[9][2] In Maramureș it is the grazing land a sheepfold needs for a season.^[10] Today it is above all a change of home or of post, and a move in chess.^[4][11]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – mutarea and mutare in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][7]
• 1639 – “exile” in the Paraclis.^[9]
• 1648 – mutarea în Vavilon “the deportation to Babylon” in the New Testament.^[9]
• 1649 – mutare in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• 1814 – the transfer of a property, in the Pravila.^[9]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it with Latin mutatio and emigratio.^[13]
• 1862 – Pontbriant gives French changement, déplacement and déménagement.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of moving or being moved and its result; a change of place, of residence or of post: După mutare, ne-am cumpărat mobilă nouă.^[4][11]
2. A move in a game of chess, made by each player in turn.^[4][2]
3. (regional) A pasture used by a sheepfold; a sheepfold or shepherds' shelter.^[2][10]

Related words

• muta
• mutat
• strămuta

References

1. ^ a b 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. 2, 88
3. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. mutáre
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 686
5. ^ 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. muta
6. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. muta
7. ^ 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 18:5
8. ^ Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 340
9. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. mutare
10. ^ a b Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. mutáre
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 153
12. ^ 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. mutare
13. ^ 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. 410
14. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 456