răpire

Forms

răpire f (plural răpiri)^[1] The Psaltirea Scheiană writes rrăpire (Psalm 61:10).^[2] The old and popular variant hrăpire is in Sadoveanu: „Fetele la noi sînt deprinse cu hrăpirea” “our girls are used to being carried off”.^[3][4]

Etymology

It is the verbal noun of răpi “to seize, carry off”, formed from Romanian răpi + -re.^[4][5][1] The verb is inherited from the Latin verb rapīre (“to seize, carry off”), a fourth-conjugation form of the classical verb.^[6][4][1] Its cognates include Aromanian arachiu, Megleno-Romanian răpes, Italian rapire and French ravir.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is in the 16th-century psalters at Psalm 61:10, first in Coresi's of 1570, where it stands for robbery: the psalmist warns not to trust in injustice and robbery.^[2][3] The Psaltirea Scheiană has rrăpire in the same verse.^[2][7] MDA2's first record, for the carrying off of a person, is Vasile Lupu's Pravila (1646), where the Wallachian version has răpirea for the Moldavian răpitura.^[5][3]

Semantic evolution

The two old senses, the abduction of a person and the seizing of goods, have lasted side by side.^[3][4] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 17th century gloss it with Slavonic words for both carrying off and plunder.^[8] The Lexicon de la Buda (1825) gives Latin raptus and rapina and German Entführung “abduction”, and also the concrete sense “the thing taken, booty”.^[9] The figurative sense “rapture, delight” follows the verb's sense “to enchant” and is used by Bolintineanu and Eminescu (răpire minții).^[10][7] Costinescu in 1870 matches it with French ravissement and rapt.^[11] A regional sense “death, passing away” is recorded in Muntenia.^[12]

Timeline

• 1570 – răpire “robbery” in Coresi's Psalter (Psalm 61:10), the first record.^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – rrăpire in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• 1646 – the abduction of a woman in Vasile Lupu's Pravila.^[5][3]
• 1649 – răpire in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 1825 – răpire “abduction; booty” in the Lexicon de la Buda.^[9]
• 1869 – răpire for Hungarian rablás “robbery” in Barițiu's dictionary.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. abduction, kidnapping: taking a person away by force.^[5][10]
2. Seizing goods by force; plunder, robbery.^[5][10]
3. (figurative) What has been taken by force, loot.^[5]
4. (figurative) rapture, enchantment.^[5][10]
5. (obsolete) An uncontrolled impulse.^[5]

Related words

• răpitor
• răpitură
• rapt

Usage notes

MDA2 has a second, regional răpire “heavy breathing; haste”, the verbal noun of a regional verb răpi “to breathe hard; to hurry”, of unknown origin and first recorded by the DA in 1913.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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 61:10
3. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. răpire
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 916
5. ^ 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, 637
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. răpi
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. răpire
8. ^ 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. răpire
9. ^ a b 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. 575
10. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 668
11. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 399
12. ^ Marin, Maria; Mărgărit, Iulia, Glosar dialectal. Muntenia, București: Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti”, p. s.v. răpire
13. ^ Barițiu, George (1869), Dictionariu unguresc-romanescu, Brașov, p. 458