prelua

Forms

prelua (present preiau, third-person singular preia, past participle preluat) 1st conjugation^[1][2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian pre- + lua (“to take”).^{[3][4][5][1][6]} Marcu and Maneca see the modern verb as modelled on French prélever and German übernehmen.^[2] lua itself is from Latin levō (“to lift”).^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Romanian translation of Herodotus of 1645, with the sense “to win, obtain”: „și biruință prea mare și frumoasă preluă” “and he won a very great and fine victory”.^[5][4][3]

Semantic evolution

The old sense “to obtain, win” is rare and obsolete;^[3][5] MDA2 and the DLR give it a headword of its own.^[3][5] The current sense “to take over from someone, to take on oneself” is first recorded in Iordache Golescu's dictionary of about 1832 and is quoted mostly from the 1950s on: taking over power, a command, a debt or a theme.^[3][5]

Timeline

• 1645 – preluă “won” in the Romanian Herodotus.^[5][4]
• c. 1832 – “to take over” in Iordache Golescu's dictionary.^[3]
• 1886 – listed by Barcianu.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. To take over something from someone; to take charge of: a prelua comanda “to take over the command”.^[1][3]
2. To take on oneself a task or a responsibility; to assume.^[1][8]
3. (obsolete, rare) To obtain, win.^[5][9]

Word family

• preluare

Related words

• lua

References

1. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 867
2. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. prelua
3. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 518
4. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. prelua
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. prelua
6. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
7. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 1395
8. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. prelua
9. ^ Bulgăr, Gheorghe; Constantinescu-Dobridor, Gheorghe (2002), Dicționar de arhaisme și regionalisme, 2 vols., București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. prelua