povară

Forms

povară f (plural poveri)^[1] Old and regional forms include povoară, pohoară, poghoară, pogoară and poveară; besides the plural poveri, an older plural povări occurs.^[2] Bălcescu wrote of debts of „zece povoare de aur” “ten loads of gold”.^[3]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old Church Slavonic товаръ (tovarŭ, “load”), with its initial /p/ taken from Old Church Slavonic подъвора (podŭvora, “stretcher, litter”).^[4][5] Ciorănescu follows Cihac, Tiktin and Conev for the first word and Candrea and Scriban for the second.^[4] Tiktin notes that the /p/ of the Romanian word does not fit the first word.^[3] MDA2, DEX and Scriban name only the second.^[2][6][7] Wiktionary gives the same pair of forms, as Proto-Slavic *tovarъ (“loading”) contaminated with *podъvora (“stretcher”).^[1] Ciorănescu compares Serbo-Croatian tovar (“burden”) and Russian товар (tovar, “goods”), the source of tovarăș.^[4] The Slavic word was itself borrowed from Turkic.^[8]

Șăineanu explained the sense as a shift from the stretcher to the load carried on it.^[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel text of 1551–1553, at Matthew 21:7, where the disciples lay their garments on the ass and the colt.^[3] MDA2 cites Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni, texts of the late 16th century, with the sense “load carried by a pack animal, a vehicle or a person”.^[2][10]

Semantic evolution

From the load itself the word came to mean its weight, and figuratively a burden of suffering or duty: povara anilor “the weight of the years”.^[6][9] Seventeenth-century glossaries give it as the Romanian for the Slavonic word for a burden.^[11] The load of a pack animal also became an old measure of weight, 100 to 125 oca, and a sum of money, a load of gold coins: an Alexandria tells of two hundred povări of gold coins taken from Darius's treasury.^[6][7][3]

The 1825 Buda dictionary already records corabie de povară “cargo ship”, and the phrase de povară still marks pack animals.^[12][6] Regional uses include the weight on a well sweep in Transylvania and the heaviness felt in late pregnancy.^[2]

Timeline

• 1551–1553 – a Gospel text (Matthew 21:7), Tiktin's first record.^[3]
• late 16th century – the texts edited in Hasdeu's Cuvente den bătrâni.^[2][10]
• 1648 – the New Testament speaks of the loss „a povariei și a corabiei” “of the cargo and of the ship”.^[10]
• c. 1660 – glosses the Slavonic word for “burden” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1688 – „povară de 40 de cămile” “a load for forty camels” in the Bucharest Bible (4 Kingdoms 8:9).^[13][3]
• 1801 – Povára “burden” in Klein's dictionary.^[14]
• 1825 – corabie de povară “cargo ship” in the Buda dictionary.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. A heavy load that someone or something has to carry;^[6][15] de povară of animals: used for carrying loads, pack.^[6][15]
2. (figurative) Physical or moral suffering, a burden that weighs on someone; a heavy obligation or task.^[6][16]
3. (historical) An old unit of weight of 100 to 125 oca, used in reckoning goods.^[6][7]

Word family

• împovăra
• împovărător
• povăraș

Related words

• tovarăș

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 492
3. ^ 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. povară
4. ^ 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. povară
5. ^ Miklosich, Franz (1862–1865), Lexicon palaeoslovenico-graeco-latinum emendatum auctum, Vindobonae: Braumüller
6. ^ 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. 857
7. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1028
8. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. *tovarъ
9. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 501
10. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. povară
11. ^ a b 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. povară
12. ^ a b Lesicon românescu-latinescu-ungurescu-nemțescu quare de mai mulți autori, în cursul a trideci și mai multor ani s-au lucrat (1825), Buda: Typographia Universității (the Lexicon of Buda, ed. Petru Maior et al.), p. 532
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 4 Kingdoms 8:9
14. ^ 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. 422
15. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. povară
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 523