răscumpărare

Forms

răscumpărare f (plural răscumpărări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian răscumpăra + -re, the long infinitive of the verb used as a noun.^[2][3][1][4] The verb răscumpăra “to buy back, to ransom” is made up of the prefix răs- and cumpăra “to buy”,^[2][5][3] which goes back to Latin comparō (“to prepare, procure”), from com- and parō (“to prepare, get”), a verb that took the sense “to buy” in all the Romance languages.^[6][7]

Old texts also have the same noun with other prefixes: descumpărare in the Palia de la Orăștie (Exodus 21:8) and scumpărare in Coresi.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Candrea's glossary of the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578) lists the noun with the sense “vengeance”, the Latin ultio of the psalms.^[8] Tiktin's first record is Coresi's Omiliar of 1581,^[4] and MDA2's is Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, with the sense “ransom of a captive”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The old language used the word for vengeance, punishment and satisfaction as well as for ransom and redemption;^[2][4] MDA2 marks the first three as obsolete.^[2][4] In religious texts it renders the redemption of mankind: the Bucharest Bible of 1688 says that the Son of Man came „să dea sufletul lui răscumpărare pentru mulți” “to give his life a ransom for many”.^[4][9] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss Old Church Slavonic искупление (iskuplenie) with it.^[10] Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders it with Latin redemptio,^[11] and the Lexicon de la Buda (1825) with redemptio, Hungarian megváltás and German Erlösung.^[12]

In law it came to mean buying back a thing one has sold, a right the civil code allowed the seller to reserve.^[4][2] Șăineanu (1929) still lists the ransom of a captive and deliverance from sin beside the action of buying back.^[13] In modern use it also means compensation, the amends made for an earlier loss.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, with the sense “vengeance”.^[8]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Omiliar.^[4]
• 1643 – “ransom of a captive” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[2]
• 1649 – Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, the first of six 17th-century lexicons that use it as a gloss.^[10]
• 1688 – the Bucharest Bible, “ransom” (Mark 10:45) and the redemption of land and of the firstborn.^[9]
• 1801 – Klein's dictionary, glossed with Latin redemptio.^[11]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of buying back: paying the price of something sold or pawned to regain possession of it.^[3][14][2]
2. The freeing of a captive, slave or prisoner in exchange for payment; a ransom.^[14][2]
3. Compensation, amends for a loss or a wrong.^[14]
4. (religion) redemption, salvation from sin.^[2][13]
5. (obsolete) Vengeance; punishment.^[2][4]

Related words

• răscumpăra
• cumpăra

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 640
3. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 917
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. răscumpărare
5. ^ Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. răscumpăra
6. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. cumpăra
7. ^ 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. cumpăra
8. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A. (1916), Psaltirea Scheiană comparată cu celelalte psaltiri din sec. XVI și XVII traduse din slavonește, vol. II: Glosarele, București: Socec, p. 368
9. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Mk 10:45
10. ^ 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. răscumpărare
11. ^ a b 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. 431
12. ^ 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. 584
13. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 534
14. ^ 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, 674