pagubă

Forms

pagubă f (plural pagube)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic пагоуба (paguba, “ruin, destruction”), a loan of the Slavonic period.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The Slavonic noun translates Ancient Greek ἀπώλεια (apṓleia) and διαφθορά (diaphthorá) “destruction”.^[6] It goes back to Proto-Slavic *paguba, a noun made from the verb *pagubiti, with the nominal prefix *pa- beside the verbal *po- and the root of Russian губить (gubítʹ, “to destroy”).^[7][8] Bulgarian пагуба (páguba) and Russian пагуба (páguba) still mean “ruin, destruction”.^[7] BER notes the Romanian loan, after the studies of Thalmann, Rosetti and Mihăilă.^[7]

The verb păgubi was borrowed from the Slavonic verb, and despăgubi “to compensate” was formed on the model of French dédommager.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the word to about 1431, a record in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[5] In Romanian texts it first appears in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in Psalms 106:20 and 108:12; in Psalm 106:20 pagubele renders the Slavonic for the “destructions” from which God delivers the people.^[9][6] MDA2's first record is Coresi's Apostol of 1563: „Nu amu fi-va moartea pagubă, ce cale de înviere” “death will not be perdition, but a way to resurrection”.^[10][4]

Semantic evolution

The Slavonic sense “perdition, ruin” narrowed in Romanian to “harm, damage” and “material loss”.^[6][4][3] The Palia of 1581 already has a face pagubă “to do harm”, and Ureche's chronicle tells of armies that did much damage to the Poles.^[4] From the losses of war, locusts and bad harvests the word extended to misfortune in general and, figuratively, to the loss of a thing's value or to moral harm.^[4][10][3]

Expressions grew around it: a fluiera a pagubă “to whistle at a loss”, i.e. to show regret or to bode a loss, pagubă-n ciuperci “no great loss”, and în paguba cuiva “to someone's detriment”.^[3][10][11] In Transylvania and Moldavia pagubă că… means “a pity that…”: „Pagubă de el, căci era un suflet de om bun” “a pity about him, for he was a good soul”.^[5][3]

Timeline

• c. 1431 – the first record, in a Slavonic–Romanian document.^[5]
• early 16th century – pagubă and pagubele in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[12]
• 1563 – “perdition” in Coresi's Apostol.^[10][4]
• 1581 – a face pagubă “to do harm” in the Palia.^[4]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon gives it for Slavonic пагуба.^[13]
• 1688 – eight times in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda glosses it Latin damnum, detrimentum.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A material loss suffered by someone or caused to someone; destruction that causes a loss, damage: Grindina a făcut pagube mari în vii;^[3][10] în pagubă “at a loss”.^[3][10]
2. (figurative) Impairment of the quality or value of a thing; moral harm;^[3][10] în paguba cuiva “to someone's detriment”.^[3][10]
3. (regional) A pity: pagubă că… “it is a pity that…”.^[3][5]

Word family

• păgubi
• păgubaș
• păgubitor
• păgubos
• despăgubi

Usage notes

Atâta pagubă!, nicio pagubă! and pagubă-n ciuperci! express resignation or indifference at a loss.^[3] MDA2 records a regional plural păgubi.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. pagubă
3. ^ 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. 762
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pagubă
5. ^ 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. pagubă
6. ^ a b c Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
7. ^ a b c Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 4, 998
8. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
9. ^ 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 106:20
10. ^ 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, 245
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 921
12. ^ 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 108:12
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. pagubă
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mark 14:4
15. ^ 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.)