răposa

Forms

răposa (third-person singular present răposează, past participle răposat) 1st conjugation^[1] Old texts have răpăosa, răpăusa, răpoosa and răpousa, with the first person present răpaos, răpaus.^[2][3] Moxa's chronicle says of an emperor „ședea acolea de bea și mânca și-și răpousa bătrânețele până la moarte” “he sat there drinking and eating and resting his old age until his death”.^[2][4] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 writes răpăosa (Matthew 8:11).^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin repausō (“to rest”).^{[6][3][7][2][1]} Wiktionary derives it through the older form răpăusa.^[1] The Latin verb is formed from re- and pausō (“to halt, cease, rest”), from pausa (“pause”), which is from Ancient Greek παῦσις (paûsis, “stopping, pause”).^[1][8]

It survives south of the Danube: Aromanian răpăsedzu and Megleno-Romanian răpos.^[7][9] The Romance cognates include Italian riposare, Occitan repausar, French reposer and Spanish reposar;^[7][10] Nocentini notes that only Romanian has the sense “to die”.^[7][10] repaus and repauza are later borrowings of the same Latin family.^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578), in the sense “to rest”: „cine da-mi-va arepi ca porumbilor, și se zbor și se răpaos”, “who will give me wings like a dove's, that I may fly away and rest” (Psalm 54).^[4][3][2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the verb meant “to rest” after work or a journey, and transitively “to give rest to” and “to put up, lodge”: the Codex Sturdzanus (before 1600) curses the man who does not let his beast rest on the holy Sunday.^[4][2] In church language the rest became the rest of death: Coresi's Gospel says of Jesus that he cried with a loud voice and „răposă”, “gave up the ghost” (Mark 15:37), and a manuscript of 1669 asks God to give rest to the dead man where the souls of the righteous rejoice.^[2] The sense “to die” is the only one left in modern Romanian, where it is a solemn or euphemistic word.^[6][3][1] Bălcescu could write ironically that a committee had „răposat” the day before.^[12]

The past participle răposat is used as a noun, “the deceased”.^[7][1] DER also records apusat “deceased”, probably blended with apus;^[7] Drăganu explained it from a Latin *appausatus.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – răpaos “to rest” in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3][2]
• before 1600 – răpause “let rest” in the Codex Sturdzanus.^[4][2]
• c. 1660 – răposat glossing Slavonic words for “deceased” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1669 – “give rest” to a dead man, in a manuscript.^[2]
• 1673 – reflexive s-a răposa in Dosoftei's verse psalter.^[2]
• 1688 – răpăosa in the Bucharest Bible.^[5]

Meanings

Verb

1. (intransitive, formal or euphemistic) To die, to pass away: Bunicul a răposat la adânci bătrâneți.^[6][3][1]
2. (obsolete, also reflexive) To rest after work or a journey.^[3][7][4]
3. (obsolete, transitive) To give someone rest; to lodge, to put someone up.^[3][4]
4. (obsolete, transitive) To grant eternal rest to the dead.^[3][2]
5. (obsolete, of a spirit) To come down and rest upon someone.^[3]

Word family

• răposat
• apusat
• răposare

Related words

• repaus
• repauza
• odihni
• Aromanian răpăsedzu

Usage notes

The past participle răposat is common as an adjective and noun, “the late, the deceased”: răposatul meu tată.^[7][1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. răposa
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 637
4. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. răposa
5. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mt 8:11
6. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 916
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i 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. răposa
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 904
10. ^ a b Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 69
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 669
13. ^ 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. răposat