observa

Forms

observa (third-person singular present observă, past participle observat, third-person subjunctive observe) 1st conjugation^[1] An old present observez is rare beside observ.^[2] Tiktin records an obsolete observui.^[3] A variant osărba occurs in an old handbook: „se cade a se osărba (a se ținea)” “must be observed (kept)”.^[4][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French observer, and DLR, MDA2, DEX, DN and MDN add a direct borrowed from Latin observō;^[4][2][5][6] DER and Wiktionary give French with its Latin source.^{[4][2][5][6][7][1]} Tiktin calls it New Latin first.^[3] The Latin verb is formed ob- + servō (“to watch, keep”).^[1][8]

The variant osărba is from Italian osservare, reshaped after the native sărba, which is inherited from the same Latin verb.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Leon Asachi in 1818.^[3] The oldest DLR quotation has the old sense “to keep, comply with”, in osărba, and the sense “to notice” comes in Palladi and in a newspaper of 1830, which glosses it with the native phrase lua aminte.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The first sense was that of the Latin verb, “to keep laws or customs”, still in Asachi and Gherea but now rare.^[4][5] Negulici (1848) glosses it “to notice; to fulfil what the law prescribes; to watch over”, and Pontbriant (1862) has both the noticing and the fulfilling.^[9][10] From “notice” came “remark aloud” and “point something out to someone”, which led to “reproach, rebuke”; from “examine closely” came “spy on, watch”.^[5][2]

Timeline

• 1818 – first record, in Leon Asachi.^[3]
• 1830 – “to notice” in a newspaper, glossed lua aminte.^[4]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[9]
• 1862 – in Pontbriant's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To notice, to remark; to state as a remark; to point something out to someone, and so to rebuke.^[5][2]
2. To examine closely, to study, to scrutinize: a observa cerul “to observe the sky”.^[5]
3. To spy on, to watch secretly.^[5]
4. (rare) To keep or comply with laws or customs.^[5][4]

Word family

• neobservat

Related words

• observator
• observație
• serba
• Latin observō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 187
3. ^ 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. observa
4. ^ 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. observa
5. ^ 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. 730
6. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. observa
7. ^ 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. observa
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. observare
10. ^ a b Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 501