potrivi

Forms

potrivi (third-person singular present potrivește, past participle potrivit, third-person subjunctive potrivească) 4th conjugation^[1] The old variant protivi occurs in the 16th-century texts: „Cu numele Domnului protivea-me lor” “in the name of the Lord I withstood them”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian potrivă + -i.^[1][4][2][5] The noun and adverb potrivă “match, equal; against”, with the old variant protivă, is from Old Church Slavonic противъ (protivŭ, “against”), or противо (protivo) as MDA2 and DLR give it;^{[5][3][6][4][7]} DEX also names a Bulgarian form.^{[5][3][6][4][7]} The Slavonic word is from Proto-Slavic *protivъ (“against”).^[8]

The oldest sense of the verb follows the Slavonic “against”: the reflexive meant “to resist, oppose”, now kept in împotrivi.^[3][2] The senses “to match, to suit, to adjust” follow the noun's sense “equal, match”.^[5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century, in the sense “to oppose”: „Cel ce se potrivește dereapteei tale” “he who opposes your right hand”.^[3][2] Tiktin dates it from the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 16th and 17th centuries the reflexive a se potrivi meant “to resist”, a sense kept in old and regional speech.^[2][3] From the 17th century it also meant “to be alike, to agree”: Nicolae Costin wrote that the will of God does not agree with that of men, and Cantemir has a tree growing as high as the mountain top.^[2] The transitive “to compare” is now old.^[9][3]

The everyday senses grew from “to bring into agreement”: to set a clock, to arrange one's hair or tie, to season food to taste (a potrivi supa de sare), to fit a garment, and among the people to tune an instrument.^[9][4] Figuratively it means “to put together, to make up”, as of verses; reflexively, “to suit, to fit” and, in folk speech, “to give in to someone”.^[4] Ciorănescu lists the derivatives potrivit “fitting, moderate”, potriveală “likeness, coincidence” and nepotrivit “unsuitable”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – se potrivește “opposes” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][2]
• 1564 – potrivă, the noun it is formed from, in Coresi.^[3]
• 1660 – potrivi in a 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[10]
• 1688 – potrivi in the Bucharest Bible.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive and transitive) To be or make alike; to match; to put on the same level; to compare.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive) To put something in the right place; to arrange; to adorn, to dress up.^[4][3]
3. (transitive) To bring into agreement, to adjust: a potrivi ceasul “to set the clock”;^[4][9][1] (popular) to tune an instrument; to season to taste.^[4][9][1]
4. (transitive) To give the shape required;^[4] (figurative) to put together, to make up.^[4]
5. (reflexive and transitive) To fit or suit: Rochia i se potrivește perfect.; to be in harmony;^[4][3] a se potrivi ca nuca-n perete “to be quite out of place”.^[4][3]
6. (transitive) To arrange things so that; to calculate, to weigh up.^[4]
7. (reflexive, popular and familiar) To heed someone, to give in.^[4]
8. (reflexive, obsolete and popular) To resist, to oppose; to împotrivi.^[4][3]

Word family

• potriveală
• potrivit
• potrivitor
• potrivire
• nepotrivit
• nepotrivire

Related words

• potrivă
• împotrivă
• deopotrivă
• Old Church Slavonic противъ (protivŭ)

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. potrivi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 491
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 857
5. ^ a b c d e 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. potrivă
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. potrivă
7. ^ a b Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. противъ
8. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 422
9. ^ 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. potrivi
10. ^ 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. potrivi
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Job 28:17