otravă

Forms

otravă f (plural otrăvuri or otrăvi)^[1] The plural is otrăvuri or otrăvi: „Vinul bun și nevasta frumoasă sunt două otrăvi dulci la om” “good wine and a pretty wife are two sweet poisons to a man” (Pann).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic отрава (otrava, “poison”).^{[4][3][5][2][6][1]} Ciorănescu cites Miklosich and Cihac for this, and compares Bulgarian отрова (otrova), Serbo-Croatian otrov and Czech otrava.^[4] Wiktionary adds that it replaced the inherited toapsec.^[1] The Slavonic word goes back to Proto-Slavic *otrava, which BER derives from the verb *otraviti (“to poison”).^[7][1] Vasmer connects it with Russian травить (travitʹ) and трава (trava, “grass”).^[8] The Old Church Slavonic verb отравити (otraviti) is attested in the Codex Suprasliensis.^[9]

The form Megleno-Romanian utroavă is derived by Capidan from Bulgarian.^[4][10] The verb otrăvi “to poison” is a separate borrowing of the Slavonic verb.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to about 1560, in Coresi's Pravila.^[2] The Moldavian law code Pravila speaks of those who want to kill someone „au cu otravă, au cu armă” “either with poison or with a weapon”.^[6][5] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss Slavonic ѡтрава with it, from Mardarie's of 1649 on.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense, a toxic substance that harms or kills, is the oldest.^[6][5] Dosoftei tells of a saint given poisons and venomous charms to drink.^[6] Figurative senses followed: whatever causes moral harm, grief or vexation, bitterness and malice; the CADE adds a doctrine or writing that corrupts the mind, and bad food or drink.^[5][12][13] It is also a term of abuse for a very wicked person, and in slang a prostitute.^[3][4] Tiktin distinguishes it from venin, the poison of animals and plants.^[2] Derivatives are otrăvitor “poisonous”, otrăvicios and contraotravă “antidote”, the last formed after French contre-poison.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – first record, in Coresi's Pravila.^[2]
• 1649 – the Romanian gloss of Slavonic ѡтрава in Mardarie's lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (James 3:8).^[14]
• 1801 – otrava “toxicum, virus” in Klein's dictionary.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. poison: a substance that, taken into the body even in small amounts, causes serious disorders and sometimes death; venin.^[3][5][1]
2. (figurative) Something that causes moral harm, grief or vexation; by extension bitterness, malice.^[3][5][1]
3. (figurative) A very wicked person.^[3][16]
4. (in the plural) Various kinds of poison.^[3]
5. (slang) A prostitute.^[4]

Word family

• otrăvi
• otrăvitor
• contraotravă
• otrăvicios

Related words

• venin
• toapsec
• Megleno-Romanian utroavă

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. otravă
3. ^ 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. 757
4. ^ a b c d e f g 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. otravă
5. ^ 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, 237
6. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. otravă
7. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 971
8. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 3, 172
9. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 321
11. ^ 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
12. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. otravă
13. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 916
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iacov 3:8
15. ^ 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. 411
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. otravă