plictisi

Forms

plictisi (third-person singular present plictisește, past participle plictisit), 4th conjugation^[1] An older form is plihtisi: Alecsandri wrote „mă plihtisisem cu sfetnicii tronului” “I had grown tired of the throne's counsellors”.^[2][3] MDA2 records the variants plectisi and plihtisi, and a regional prictisi.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Modern Greek πλήκτω (plíkto, “to be bored; to bore”), as MDA2, Tiktin and DLR give the Greek verb.^[4][3][2] DEX derives it from the aorist of πλήσσω (plísso).^[5] Wiktionary compares the Greek past forms πλήκτισα (plíktisa) and έπληξα (éplixa) and thinks the verb probably came through the adjective plicticos “boring”, from πληκτικός (pliktikós).^[1] The Romanian adjective is itself from that Greek one and is first recorded in the same work as the verb.^[6][4]

In Greek, πλήττω (plítto) “to be bored” is a learned word: it continues Ancient Greek πλήττω (plḗttō, “to strike”), which took the sense of the popular verb for “to be bored” because that verb was associated with a verb meaning “to strike”.^[7] The ancient verb, also πλήσσω (plḗssō), is recorded from Homer.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in Iordache Golescu's dictionary manuscript, the Condica limbii rumânești, of about 1832.^[4][3]

Semantic evolution

Two senses run side by side from the 19th century on: the reflexive a se plictisi “to be bored, to grow tired of something” and the transitive a plictisi “to annoy, to bother”.^[3][2] Literary use in the 20th century added the shade of a feeling of emptiness.^[5][2] MDA2 also records a regional reflexive sense “to get tired”.^[4]

From the verb Romanian formed plictiseală “boredom” and plictisitor “boring”.^[4][1]

Timeline

• c. 1832 – plictisi and plicticos in Golescu's Condica.^[4][3][6]
• 19th century – plihtisi in Alecsandri's plays.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To be bored, to feel an inner emptiness; to grow tired of someone or something.^[5][4] M-am plictisit să tot aștept autobuzul.^[5]
2. (transitive) To annoy, to irritate; to bother someone with the same thing again and again.^[5][9]
3. (transitive) To bore someone.^[9][1]

Word family

• plictis
• plictisitor
• plictiseală

Related words

• plicticos
• Modern Greek πλήττω (plítto)

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. plictisi
3. ^ 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. plictisi
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, 421
5. ^ a b c d e DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 833
6. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. plicticos
7. ^ Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
8. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, p. 1179
9. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. plictisi