răbdare

Forms

răbdare f (plural răbdări)^[1] Old texts also write rebdare: the Codicele Voronețean renders “long-suffering” (Acts 26:3) as lungă rebdare.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of răbda “to endure”, used as a noun: from Romanian răbda + -re.^[3][4][1] The Academy dictionary and Tiktin also refer the noun to the verb.^[5][2] Aromanian has the matching noun Aromanian arãvdari beside the verb aravdu.^[6][1]

The origin of the verb itself is disputed: MDA2 calls it of unknown origin.^[3] Ciorănescu derives it from Vulgar Latin *re-e(n)mendāre (“to improve”), built on Latin ēmendō, and rejects a Slavic source in Old Church Slavonic радити (raditi, “to take care of”), which Cihac had proposed.^[6][7] Wiktionary prefers a Vulgar Latin *ēlib(ī)dāre (“to keep oneself from desire”) and lists several further proposals.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is first recorded in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), in the spelling rebdare and in the sense “endurance of suffering”.^[3][5] Coresi's psalter of 1570 has the articled form răbdarea (Ps 9:19).^[8]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense is the endurance of pain or hardship, and the plural răbdări long meant “sufferings”;^[5][4] DEX now labels that use rare.^[5][4] From it came the sense “the calm waiting for things to happen”, now the main one, and “perseverance, tenacity”.^[4][3] Old texts also used it for “indulgence” and “hope”, both obsolete.^[3][1]

The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to render Slavonic words for long-suffering and endurance, such as Old Church Slavonic тръпение (trŭpenije).^[9] A jocular phrase, a mânca răbdări prăjite “to eat fried patience”, means to go hungry;^[4][2] Tiktin glosses răbdări prăjite as empty promises.^[4][2]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – rebdare in the Codicele Voronețean, the first record.^[3][2]
• 1570 – răbdarea in Coresi's psalter (Ps 9:19).^[8]
• 16th century – răbdare in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Ps 38:8).^[2]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[9]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, as in Luke 8:15.^[10]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary glosses rabdare with Latin “patientia, tolerantia”.^[11]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda gives both “suffering, enduring” and “patience”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. patience: the ability to bear hardship or pain, and to wait calmly for things to happen; used alone as an exclamation, “wait!”.^[4][3][1]
2. (rare, in the plural) Sufferings, privations.^[4][1]
3. perseverance, tenacity in a long or difficult task.^[4][3]
4. (obsolete) indulgence; hope.^[3][1]

Related words

• răbda
• Aromanian arãvdari

Usage notes

Common phrases are a-și pierde răbdarea and a-și ieși din răbdări “to lose one's temper”, a scoate pe cineva din răbdări “to drive someone mad”, and răbdare și tutun, said to someone who has a long wait ahead.^[4][3] The proverb cu răbdarea treci marea “with patience you cross the sea” praises perseverance.^[2][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. răbdáre
3. ^ 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, 628
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 914
5. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. răbdare
6. ^ a b 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
7. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 302
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 9:19
9. ^ 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. răbdare
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Luke 8:15
11. ^ 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. 428
12. ^ 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. 571