ploua

Forms

ploua (third-person singular present plouă, past participle plouat, third-person subjunctive plouă or (regional) ploaie) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin plovō (“to rain”), the popular form of Classical pluō.^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The popular verb is attested in the imperfect in Petronius and lived on beside the classical one.^[6] Romanian moved the verb into the first conjugation.^[2][1] Candrea and Densusianu explain the change by the third person ⟨plouă⟩, from *plovit, and Wiktionary also allows a remodelling on the old subjunctive.^[7][1] Traces of the old conjugation survive in the regional forms să ploaie (subjunctive, Transylvania) and ⟨ploaie⟩ (indicative, Oltenia).^[2]

The verb survives south of the Danube and in Istria: Aromanian ploae and Istro-Romanian plou.^[2][8][1] Its Romance cognates include Italian piovere, French pleuvoir, Catalan ploure, Spanish llover and Portuguese chover.^[2][9] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *plew- (“to flow, float, wash”), the rain being first pictured as something poured.^[1][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583): „să nu fie ploaie şi nu ploo spre pămîntu” “that there be no rain, and it did not rain on the earth”.^[5][3] Tiktin also cites the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The verb is chiefly impersonal, “it rains”, and also transitive, of rain falling on someone or something and wetting it.^[4] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 already has the causative sense: „Iată eu voiu ploa voaoă pâini den ceriu” “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you”.^[11]

By analogy it came to mean anything falling, or let fall, in great quantity: Șăineanu's example is enemy bullets raining down.^[4][12] Ciorănescu also records the sense “to bore, to annoy”.^[2] A gloomy person is one who looks as if it had rained on him: parcă l-a plouat, and in folk verse Ori te-a nins, ori te-a plouat? “Has it snowed or rained on you?”.^[11]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – ploo “it rained” in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[5][3]
• c. 1573–1578 – the verb in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[11]
• 1688 – transitive a ploa pâini “to rain bread” in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (impersonal) To rain: of rain, to fall.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive, impersonal) Of rain, to fall on someone or something; to wet: Ne-a plouat pe drum.^[4][13]
3. (by analogy) To fall, or let fall, in great quantity and without a break: Plouau pietre peste ziduri.^[4][12]
4. (figurative) To bore, to annoy.^[2]

Word family

• plouat

Related words

• ploaie
• ploios
• Aromanian ploae
• Latin pluō

Usage notes

Set phrases describe the rain: a ploua cu găleata (or ca din cofă) “to pour down”, plouă de varsă “it is pouring”, a ploua ca prin sită “to drizzle”;^[4] a se face că plouă (colloquial) is “to pretend not to notice”.^[4] Ciorănescu calls the spelling ploa old and incorrect.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ploua
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 427
4. ^ 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. 835
5. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. ploua
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
8. ^ Byhan, Arthur (1899), Istrorumänisches Glossar, Sechster Jahresbericht des Instituts für rumänische Sprache zu Leipzig: 174–366, p. 309
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6610
10. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ 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. ploua
12. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 489
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ploua