prăbuși

Forms

prăbuși (third-person singular present prăbușește, past participle prăbușit), 4th conjugation^[1] An old variant prăvuși is recorded, and the present prăbuș beside prăbușesc is rare.^[2]

Etymology

It is a South Slavic loan: MDA2, the DLR and Wiktionary name borrowed from Bulgarian пробуша (probuša), used reflexively, while the DEX names borrowed from Serbo-Croatian probušiti.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu gives both, after Tiktin and Miklosich, with the Slavic meaning “to perforate, pierce through”.^[5][6] Șăineanu refers the reader to buși.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Latin–Romanian glossary known as Anonymus Caransebesiensis, which Tiktin dates to about 1670 and MDA2 to the second half of the 17th century.^[6][2] Its early uses are transitive, “to make sink, drive in”: in Cantemir's Istoria ieroglifică a stallion strikes the wolf so as to drive the skull bone into its brain with its hooves, „osul capului în crieri să-i prăbușască”.^[6]

Semantic evolution

From “to drive in, make sink” the verb moved to “to throw down, topple” and, in the reflexive, “to collapse, fall in a heap”, which is the main sense today: Alecsandri's line „Se prăbușește c-un gemet de pe cal” “he falls from his horse with a groan” shows it.^[6][3][5] Tiktin's quotations also have the sense “to sink, set”, of the sun going down behind a hill.^[6] Figurative senses followed: a person's moral or social collapse, the sudden end of a regime or a plan.^[4][2] Water that falls from a height or runs down a steep slope se prăbușește, and in medicine blood pressure is said to collapse.^[2][4] MDA2 records an obsolete sense “to trample” and a Bukovina sense “to sink”.^[2] Ciorănescu lists the derivative prăbușitură “ruin; rocky place”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1670 – first record, in Anonymus Caransebesiensis.^[6][2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu gives the senses “to succumb” and “to fall in ruins”.^[7]
• 1955–1957 – the DLRLC gives the reflexive “to collapse” and the transitive “to bring down”.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive and transitive) To fall, or make fall, suddenly and noisily from a height; to collapse, topple; to prăvăli, nărui: Acoperișul s-a prăbușit sub zăpadă.^[4][2][1]
2. (reflexive, figurative) To suffer a psychological or social collapse; to decădea.^[4][2]
3. (reflexive, of water) To fall from a height or run fast down a steep slope.^[4][8]
4. (reflexive, medicine, of blood pressure) To drop sharply.^[2]
5. (figurative) To come, or bring, to a sudden end.^[4][2]

Word family

• prăbușitură

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 500
3. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prăbuși
4. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 860
5. ^ 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. prăbuși
6. ^ 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. prăbuși
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 502
8. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 531