opri

Forms

opri (third-person singular present oprește, past participle oprit, third-person subjunctive oprească) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic опрѣти (oprěti), borrowed with its reflexive опрѣти сѧ (oprěti sę).^{[2][3][4][5][1][6]} Șăineanu glossed the Slavonic verb “to support”.^[7] It is formed from the prefix о- (o-) and пьрѣти (pĭrěti), from Proto-Slavic *perti (“to press, push”).^[1][8] The Bulgarian etymological dictionary cites the Romanian verb as a loan from it and gives the Slavic relatives Bulgarian опра (oprá) and Russian опереться (operetʹsja, “to lean on”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (Psalms 77:16, 117:13 and 129:3).^[9] Tiktin cites the Codicele Voronețean for the old sense “to help, support”: „se oprimu netarii” “that we support the weak” (Acts 20:35).^[10] MDA2 dates it from the Tetraevangelion of 1574.^[4]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to support, help” is close to the Slavonic one and did not survive.^[10] From “hold back” the verb developed its main modern senses: to stop a movement or action, and reflexively to stop, halt or stay somewhere.^[5][2] Coresi's homilies already have „se sculă și opri vântul” “he rose and stopped the wind”.^[5] Other senses are “to keep back, to seize, to arrest”, “to keep for oneself, to reserve” and “to prevent, forbid”.^[2][4][10] A popular phrase says of a great liar that he „minte de se opresc apele în loc” “lies so that the waters stand still”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – first records, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• c. 1563-1583 – “to support, help” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[10]
• 1574 – in the Tetraevangelion.^[4]
• 1649 – opresc glosses Slavonic verbs for “to forbid” and “to hold back” in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – oprit 28 times in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To stop: to interrupt a movement, action or process, often suddenly; reflexive, to cease.^[2][4][1]
2. (intransitive and reflexive) To stand still, halt; to stay somewhere for a while; transitive, to stop a person or a vehicle: Șoferul a oprit mașina la marginea drumului.^[2][1]
3. To hold back, keep someone somewhere; to seize; to arrest.^[2][4]
4. To keep for oneself, to set aside; to reserve seats or tickets.^[2][1]
5. (reflexive) To settle somewhere for a time; to dwell on a question.^[2][4]
6. To prevent, not allow; to forbid; reflexive, to refrain.^[2][1]

Word family

• oprire
• opreală
• opreliște
• opritor
• opritoare
• opritură

Usage notes

A opri calea cuiva means “to bar someone's way”.^[2] A regional imperative oprea “stop!” exists beside oprește.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 746
3. ^ 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. opri
4. ^ 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, 217
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. opri
6. ^ a b Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 905
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 445
8. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 396
9. ^ 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 77:16
10. ^ 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. oprí
11. ^ 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. opresc
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Judges 7:8