purta

Forms

purta (present port, third-person singular poartă, past participle purtat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin portō (“to carry, bring”).^[2][3][4][1] De Vaan derives the Latin verb from a noun meaning “passage, crossing” or a participle “passed, crossed”, from the root of *per- (“to go across”).^[5][1]

The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian portu, Megleno-Romanian purtàri and Istro-Romanian purtå.^[2][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian portare, French porter, Spanish portar and Portuguese portar.^[2][8] DER cites Pușcariu's EWRS, Candrea and Densusianu and the REW for the etymology.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Hurmuzaki psalter of the early 16th century, MDA2's first text, with purtai “thou leadest” in Psalm 79:1.^[3][9] DÉRom dates the verb from the Codex Bratulescu (1559–1560), and Tiktin from the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[7][10] MDA2 also records an old variant porta.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From “to carry” the verb took in “to lead around”, “to have about one”, “to wear”, “to endure” and, reflexive, “to behave”;^[10][2] Tiktin quotes a chronicle on Tamerlane, who put Sultan Bayezid in an iron cage and carried him about with him.^[10][2] Of clothes, poartă-l sănătos “wear it in good health” is said to someone wearing something new, and ironically “you are welcome to it”.^[10] Se poartă means “it is in fashion”.^[4] Abstract objects give phrases such as a purta grijă “to take care”, a purta dușmănie “to bear a grudge” and a purta o discuție “to hold a discussion”.^[4]

The Aromanian verb portu has the same senses “to carry” and “to behave”, and Aromanian also has a noun port “costume, conduct”.^[6][11] Romanian later took many French loans of the same Latin family, such as comporta, suporta, transporta and importa.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – purtai in the Hurmuzaki psalter.^[9][3]
• 1559–1560 – in the Codex Bratulescu.^[7]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) to carry, to hold in one's hands or arms or on one's back and take somewhere; of vehicles and animals, to transport, to pull.^[4][3][1]
2. (transitive) to pass from hand to hand;^[4] a purta vorbe “to spread gossip”.^[4]
3. (transitive) to carry a child in the womb;^[4][3] (figurative) to bear, to endure.^[4][3]
4. (transitive) to move about, to lead from place to place;^[4] a purta pe cineva cu vorba “to put someone off with promises”.^[4]
5. (transitive) to have, to harbour a feeling;^[4] a purta pică “to bear a grudge”.^[4]
6. (transitive) to bear a name or a title; to hold an office.^[4]
7. (transitive) to wear clothing, jewellery, a hairstyle;^[4][1] (reflexive, impersonal) se poartă “it is in fashion”.^[4][1]
8. (transitive) to support, to look after;^[4] a purta de grijă “to take care of”.^[4]
9. (transitive) to conduct, to carry on: a purta o discuție, a purta război.^[4]
10. (reflexive) to behave, to conduct oneself: Poartă-te frumos la masă!^[4][2][1]

Word family

• purtare
• purtăreț
• purtat
• purtător
• nepurtat

Related words

• purtabil
• comporta
• Aromanian portu

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. purta
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, 605
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 900
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 872
7. ^ a b c Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6672
9. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 79:1
10. ^ 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. purta
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 149