obraz

Forms

obraz m (plural obraji)^[1] In the sense “cheek” the word is masculine, plural obraji; in the older senses “face”, “person” and “rank” it is neuter, plural obraze or obrazuri.^[2][3] Tiktin records the diminutives obrăjor and obrăjel: „Rumeorii obrăjori Sunt tocmai ca doi bujori” “her little rosy cheeks are just like two peonies”.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic образъ (obrazŭ, “form, image, face, person”).^{[5][3][2][1][4]} Ciorănescu compares Bulgarian образ (obraz) and Serbo-Croatian obraz, both also “face, cheek”,^[5][6] and notes that the word is in general use across the Romanian-speaking area.^[5] It also lives south of the Danube, in Megleno-Romanian ubraz.^[5] The Old Church Slavonic word is the ordinary term for “image, appearance, figure”, translating Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ), εἰκών (eikṓn) and τύπος (túpos).^[7][6]

It continues Proto-Slavic *obrazъ.^[1][8] Vasmer explains it as *ob- with *razъ (“stroke, blow”), related by ablaut to the verb for “cut”, while ESSJa takes it as a noun from the verb *obraziti.^[6][1] The Slavonic word also reached Hungarian ábrázat (“face, countenance”).^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is a personal name, Gheorghi Obraz, in a charter of 1424.^[4][10] In Romanian texts the word appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[11] MDA2 dates its first record to Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[3] In the Palia de la Orăștie (1581–1582) it means “image”: „D-zeu făcu pre om lui pre obraz” “God made man in his image”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The Slavonic senses came over with the word.^[4][12] In the 16th and 17th centuries obraz could mean a painted image: Moxa's chronicle has „Leapădă icoanele de în beserecă și rade obrazele de pre ziduri” “he throws the icons out of the church and scrapes the images off the walls”.^[4] The usual old sense was “face”: the Bible of 1688 has „Femeie frumoasă la obraz ești tu” “you are a woman fair of face”.^[4][13] From “face” came “person, individual”: old usage has un obraz bisericesc “a cleric”,^[12] and an old text speaks of the three obraze “persons” of the Trinity.^[4][12] BER, after Rosetti, holds that față took the sense “person” on this model.^[8] The sense “rank, standing” is in Bălcescu, who wrote that the prince's men were treated “according to the obraz of each”.^[4][12]

Since the face shows shame, obraz also came to mean “honour, sense of shame”, and in another direction “boldness, impertinence”: Enache Kogălniceanu writes of a man who “had taken much obraz” and paid heed to no one.^[4][5] Many expressions rest on this sense, and the adjective obraznic “insolent” comes from it, either with the suffix -nic or from the Slavonic adjective.^[5] The narrower sense “cheek” is the main modern one;^[14][2] Klein's dictionary of 1801 already glosses the word both “face” and “cheek”.^[14][2] In Banat the plant Coreopsis tinctoria is called obrazul fetei “the girl's cheek”,^[3][4] and slang uses the word for the buttock.^[1]

Timeline

• 1424 – the personal name Gheorghi Obraz in a charter.^[4][10]
• c. 1500-1520 – obraz in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[11]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[3]
• 1581–1582 – obraz “image” in the Palia de la Orăștie.^[4]
• 1649 – obraz in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[15]
• 1688 – frumoasă la obraz “fair of face” in the Bucharest Bible.^[13][4]
• 1801 – obraz “face, cheek” in Klein's dictionary.^[14]
• 1825 – obrazu “face”, with the phrase fără obraz “shameless”, in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. (masculine) A cheek, either side of the face; the skin covering it: Copilul avea obrajii roșii de frig.^[2][3]
2. (dated, neuter) The face, the front of the human head.^[2][3]
3. (dated, neuter) A person, an individual: obraz subțire “a refined, demanding person who lives in luxury”.^[2]
4. (dated, neuter) rank, social standing.^[2][17]
5. (figurative) honour, reputation, dignity; a sense of shame: N-are obraz să mai vină pe aici.^[3][12]
6. (slang) The buttock.^[1]

Word family

• obrăjor
• obrază
• obrăzar
• obraznic
• obrăznici
• obrăznicie
• neobrăzat

Related words

• preobrăzi
• Megleno-Romanian ubraz
• Old Church Slavonic образъ (obrazŭ)

Usage notes

Many fixed expressions use the word: a fi gros de obraz “to be shameless”, a avea obraz subțire “to be well brought up”, (a fi) fără obraz “(to be) impudent”, să-ți fie rușine obrazului! “shame on you!”, and the proverb obrazul subțire cu cheltuială se ține “a refined way of life costs money”.^[2][3]

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 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 e f g h i j k l m n Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. obraz
5. ^ a b c d e f 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. obraz
6. ^ a b c Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
7. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
8. ^ a b c Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 752
9. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 886
10. ^ a b Constantinescu, N. A. (1963), Dicționar onomastic romînesc, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. s.v. obraz
11. ^ 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 41:1
12. ^ a b c d e Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună
13. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Gn 12:11
14. ^ a b c 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. 408
15. ^ 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. obraz
16. ^ 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. 455
17. ^ Constantinescu, Grigore; Constantinescu, Eugenia (2014), Glosar. Arealul etnocultural Argeș-Muscel, p. 73