pază

Forms

pază f (plural paze)^[1] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 sometimes has the plural păzi: „râdicați păzi” “set up guards”.^[2]

Etymology

It is a back-formation from Romanian păzi (“to guard”).^{[3][4][5][2][1]} Ciorănescu lists it among the verb's derivatives, beside paznic and păzitor.^[6]

The verb is from Old Church Slavonic пазити (paziti, “to watch closely”), from Proto-Slavic *paziti.^[6][7][1] It is also found south of the Danube: Aromanian pãzescu and Megleno-Romanian păzǫs.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from about 1560, in the Apostol of the priest Bratul.^[2] MDA2 dates it to Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[5] The Romanian Herodotus of 1645 has the sense “watch, turn on guard”: „vinindu-i rîndul de pază” “when his turn on watch came”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From the act of guarding the word came to mean the guards themselves, a watch posted at a gate or a frontier.^[3][4] A second line of senses is care and caution: mai cu pază “more carefully”, and the proverb Paza bună trece primejdia rea “good care gets past great danger”.^[2][8] Old texts also used it for keeping a law or a promise,^[5] and Tiktin records a dated sense, a sick person's diet.^[5][2]

Paza usturoiului “the guarding of the garlic” is a regional custom of St Andrew's night,^[5] in which each guest keeps a head of garlic in front of him, believed to need guarding all night so that the strigoi do not steal it.^[5] In the 1990s the press used pază de corp “bodyguard”, after French garde de corps.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1560 – first record, in the Apostol of the priest Bratul.^[2]
• 1581 – Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[5]
• 1645 – „rîndul de pază” in the Romanian Herodotus.^[4]
• 1688 – 36 occurrences in the Bucharest Bible, with the plural păzi beside paze.^[10][2]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses Páza with Latin custodia.^[11]
• 1991 – pază de corp “bodyguard” in the press.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of guarding; the means of keeping someone or something safe; supraveghere: de pază “on guard”;^[3][5] în paza cuiva “in someone's keeping”.^[3][5]
2. A person or group set to guard; a guard, paznic, gardă.^[3]
3. (popular) Care, caution.^[5][8]

Word family

• paznic

Related words

• păzi
• păzitor
• Old Church Slavonic пазити (paziti)

Usage notes

The proverb Paza bună trece primejdia rea advises caution.^[2][8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. pază
3. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 785
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. pază
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 288
6. ^ a b c 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. păzi
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 316
8. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 945
9. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. pază
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 40:4
11. ^ 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. 414