părăsi

Forms

părăsi (third-person singular present părăsește, past participle părăsit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Byzantine Greek παρεάω (pareáō, “to let pass, give up”), taken over through its future παρεάσω (pareásō).^[2][3][4] Ciorănescu follows Tiktin, Candrea and Pușcariu in this view, and Șăineanu called the source Byzantine Greek.^[5][6] Wiktionary calls the origin unknown and the derivation from Greek only probable.^[1] DEX gives no etymon and only compares a Slavic verb of the same form.^[7]

The Serbo-Croatian verb parasiti (“to leave”) is close in form and sense.^[5][3] Tiktin thought it came from the same Greek verb, while Candrea took it to be a loan from Romanian.^[4][5] Scholars have proposed other etyma as well: παραιτῶ (paraitô, “to give up”), with the aorist ἀπάρνησα (apárnēsa), which Pascu and Scriban gave as the source, and Philippide suggested yet a third.^[5] Pascu derived Aromanian pãrnãsescu (“to leave, abandon”) from the second of these.^[8][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word appears in the earliest Romanian psalter, the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century: „Nu părăsi mene” “Do not forsake me”.^[3][2] The psalter index records forms such as părăsiși and părăsim there.^[10][11] Tiktin's first record is the Codicele Voronețean, from the same century.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the first texts the verb meant to leave someone alone, to abandon or forsake a person, and to leave a place.^[3][2] Coresi's prints and the 17th-century chronicles use it in this sense, as in Neculce: „Te-om părăsi și ne-om duce” “we shall leave you and go”.^[3] With an action as its object it came to mean to stop doing something: Neculce writes that people had ceased coming to the divan, „părăsise oamenii a mai veni la divan”.^[4]

Old Romanian also had a reflexive a se părăsi de “to give something up, refrain from”: Antim Ivireanul speaks of a man who „nu se părăsește de păcate” “does not give up his sins”.^[4] DEX keeps the reflexive only as a regional use for giving up a habit or vice.^[7] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use the verb to gloss Slavonic words for ceasing and despairing.^[12] Set phrases include a părăsi lumea “to die” and a părăsi patul “to leave one's bed after a long illness”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – nu părăsi “do not forsake” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[2][3][10]
• c. 1563-1583 – the Codicele Voronețean.^[4][2]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon has părăsesc.^[13]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible uses the verb more than 60 times.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To abandon or forsake someone, to leave them alone; to separate from someone.^[7][2][1]
2. To leave a place, to go away from it.^[7][15]
3. To stop or give up an action or an occupation; to leave aside, neglect.^[7][16]
4. (also regional, reflexive) To give up a habit or a vice.^[7]

Word family

• părăsitură
• nepărăsit

Related words

• Aromanian pãrnãsescu

Usage notes

MDA2 records a părăsi lumea “to die” and a părăsi patul “to get up after a long illness”.^[2] The present is părăsesc.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 304
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. părăsi
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. părăsi
5. ^ 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. părăsi
6. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 462
7. ^ 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. 789
8. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 2, 72
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 830
10. ^ 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 39:6
11. ^ 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 73:9
12. ^ 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. părăsi
13. ^ 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. părăsesc
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 27:30
15. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 356
16. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. părăsi