plimba

Forms

a plimba (third-person singular present plimbă, past participle plimbat, third-person subjunctive plimbe) 1st conjugation^[1] Older primbla and preumbla are in the Bucharest Bible: „Și ieși Isaac ca să se primble la câmpu” “and Isaac went out to walk in the field” (Genesis 24:63).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin perambulō (“to walk through”), formed with per- (“through”) on ambulō (“to walk”).^[4][3][5][1] MDA2 gives the etymon as praeambulō.^[6] The older forms preumbla and primbla show the development: the modern verb is a contraction of the second, which comes from the first.^[7][5] Tiktin doubted this etymology and took the verb as a new formation from Romanian pre + îmbla, the old form of umbla.^[2]

The word survives south of the Danube: Aromanian priimnu and Megleno-Romanian priamnu.^[4][8][9] Ciorănescu notes that among the Romance languages the verb survives only in Romanian, where it is in general use.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the sense “to go through, traverse”: „preaîmblă Machiedonia și Ahaiia” “passing through Macedonia and Achaia” (Acts 19:21).^[6][3][2]

Semantic evolution

The old transitive sense “to travel through a land” is now obsolete, as is “to examine while walking among”.^[6][3] The reflexive a se plimba “to walk about for pleasure” is recorded from the 17th century on.^[3][2] The transitive came to mean “to take someone for a walk” and “to carry about, drive about”; one can also plimba ochii or privirea “run one's eyes over something”.^[5][2][10]

Colloquial phrases include du-te de te plimbă “mind your own business, leave me alone” and a se plimba ca vodă prin lobodă “to go wherever one likes unhindered”.^[5][6] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives plimbare “walk”, plimbăreț “fond of walking” and plimbătoare “privy”.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – preaîmblă “passing through” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[6][3]
• 1649 – primbla in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – să se primble “to walk” in the Bucharest Bible (Genesis 24:63).^[2][3]
• 1893 – Damé glosses plimba with French promener and colloquial trimbaler “to cart about”.^[12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To walk about at leisure, for fresh air, exercise or pleasure; to stroll.^[5][6][1]
2. (transitive) To take someone for a walk; to carry or drive people or animals about.^[5][6][1]
3. (transitive) To move an object back and forth;^[5][10] a-și plimba privirea “to let one's gaze wander”.^[5][10]
4. (obsolete) To travel through a land; to traverse.^[6]

Word family

• plimbare
• plimbăreț

Related words

• umbla
• Aromanian priimnu
• Latin perambulō

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. plimba
3. ^ 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. plimba
4. ^ 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. plimba
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 833
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 488
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 878
9. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 852
10. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. plimba
11. ^ 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. primbla
12. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État