obosi

Forms

obosi (first-person singular present obosesc, third-person singular present obosește, past participle obosit), 4th conjugation^[1][2] A regional variant is abosi.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Bulgarian обосея (oboseja), with Serbo-Croatian obositi as an alternative source.^[3][2][1] The South Slavic verbs mean “to become barefoot”: Ciorănescu cites Serbo-Croatian and Slovene obositi in this sense, and the Bulgarian etymological dictionary records the verb and обосявам (obosjavam) for cattle that lose their shoes.^[4][5] The CADE glosses the Bulgarian and Serbian verbs “to be left barefoot, to lose one's horseshoes (from too much running)”, and Șăineanu explains the Romanian sense as a generalization of “to wear out one's shoes from much walking”.^[6][7] Tiktin compares the Serbian and Slovene verbs without deciding.^[8]

The verbs are formed on Old Church Slavonic босъ (bosŭ, “barefoot”), from Proto-Slavic *bosъ (“barefoot, unshod”).^[4][9][10] Ciorănescu follows Miklosich, Cihac, Tiktin and Pușcariu.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Moxa's chronicle of 1620, in a story of a hunt: „și scroafa obosi” “and the sow grew tired”.^[3][8][11]

Semantic evolution

From the start the verb meant to lose one's strength through long effort, and it was used both intransitively and transitively, “to tire someone”.^[8][2] Mardarie's lexicon of 1649 glosses obosit with Slavonic истомленый “exhausted”.^[12] The reflexive a se obosi also means to take great pains to do something.^[2]

According to Ciorănescu the verb is used in Oltenia and Muntenia, while Moldavia prefers osteni, the usual synonym.^[4] The noun oboseală “tiredness” and the adjective obositor “tiring” were formed in Romanian.^[3]

Timeline

• 1620 – obosi in Moxa's chronicle, the first record.^[3][8]
• 1649 – obosit in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[12]
• c. 1650–1700 – the adjective obosit in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[3]
• 1688 – obosiră “they grew tired” in the Bucharest Bible.^[13]
• 1825 – oboseală “tiredness” in the Lexicon of Buda.^[3]
• 1835 – obositor “tiring” in Simeon Marcovici.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, reflexive) To get tired, to lose one's physical or mental strength after long effort; to weary.^[2][3]
2. (transitive) To tire someone, to wear out: Plimbarea lungă l-a obosit.^[2][14]
3. (reflexive) To take great pains, to make an effort to do something.^[2]

Word family

• oboseală
• obositor
• obosit

Related words

• osteni
• Bulgarian бос (bos)

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 729
3. ^ 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. 2, 185
4. ^ 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. obosi
5. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 69
6. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 437
8. ^ 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. obosí
9. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill
11. ^ Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. obosi
12. ^ 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. obosit
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 1 Împărății 30:10
14. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional