răbda

Forms

răbda (third-person singular present rabdă, past participle răbdat, third-person subjunctive rabde) 1st conjugation^[1] The old and Transylvanian form is rebda, as in the Codicele Voronețean: „iară se greșindu, muncă rebdați” “and if, sinning, you endure torment”.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown: DEX 2009, MDA2 and the DLR leave it open.^[5][3][2] It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian aravdu.^[4][6][7]

Ciorănescu proposes Vulgar Latin *reemendō (“to make better”), beside Spanish remendar (“to patch”) and amindari (“to improve, to gain”).^[4][4][4] The sense would have passed from making strong to holding out, as in îndura.^[4] He explains the ⟨b⟩ as a consonant that grew between /m/ and /d/, as in French chambre and Spanish hombre.^[4]

Ciorănescu lists the older proposals and finds none convincing: a Slavonic verb for taking care of something (Cihac); *reobdūrō (“to harden again”) (Cihac, Körting, Weigand, against whom Densusianu wrote); Latin rigidus (“stiff”) through a verb derived from it (Herzog, opposed by Graur and Rosetti); regō (“to direct”) (Giuglea); a verb for raging, *rabidō or *rubidō (Pușcariu); and repedō (“to retreat”) (Scriban).^[4] Wiktionary prefers an older form with an initial /a/, later lost, from a Vulgar Latin verb formed on libīdō (“desire”) with privative ē, meaning to keep oneself from desire.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), with the form rebdați “you endure”.^[3][2] Coresi's Psalter of 1570 has răbda, răbdai and rabd.^[8] The sense in these texts is “to bear, endure” suffering, and “to wait patiently”.^[2][9]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense, to bear pain, torment or shame, is still the main one: Nicolae Costin writes of Turks who could no longer bear hunger and thirst.^[2][9] Without an object it means to be patient, to wait: Coresi's Gospel has „Doamne, rabdă mie” “Lord, have patience with me”, and in Maramureș the verb still means “to wait”.^[9][10]

From enduring came “to tolerate, allow”, as Neculce writes of a prince who knew and let it be, and the idioms nu-l rabdă inima “his heart will not let him (hold back)” and cum îl rabdă pământul? “how does the earth bear him?”, said of a wicked man.^[9][5] Of things it means to last, to wear well.^[5][11] The old language also used it for “to trust in” and “to hope”.^[3]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – rebdați “you endure” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3][2]
• 1570 – răbda, răbdai and rabd in Coresi's Psalter.^[8]
• c. 1573–1578 – răbda in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[9][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. To endure, bear hardship or pain without resisting; of things, to last, be durable.^[5][3][1]
2. To accept, allow, tolerate: nu-l rabdă inima să… “he cannot hold himself back from…”.^[5][3][1]
3. To be patient, keep one's calm;^[5][10][1] (Maramureș) to wait.^[5][10][1]
4. (old) To trust in someone or something; to hope.^[3]

Word family

• răbdare
• răbdător
• nerăbdare
• nerăbdător
• răbdăriu

Related words

• îndura
• Aromanian aravdu

Usage notes

The present has rabd, rabzi, rabdă, with a under the stress; the popular present răbd also occurs.^[3][9] A răbda de foame is to go hungry.^[11]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. răbda
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 628
4. ^ 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. răbda
5. ^ 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. 914
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 128
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 101
8. ^ 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 24:5
9. ^ 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. răbda
10. ^ a b c Papahagi, Tache (1925), Graiul și folklorul Maramureșului, București: Cultura Națională, p. 230
11. ^ a b Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 659
12. ^ 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 129:4