roade

Forms

roade (third-person singular present roade, past participle ros, third-person subjunctive roadă), 3rd conjugation^[1] The first person singular present was formerly also roz.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin rōdō (“to gnaw”).^[4][2][5][1] DÉRom reconstructs it for Proto-Romance with the sense “to wear away with the teeth bit by bit”.^[6] The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian arod, Megleno-Romanian rod and Istro-Romanian róde.^[4][7][6] Romance cognates include Italian rodere, Old Occitan roire, Old French roure, Spanish roer and Portuguese roer.^[4][8] The Latin verb goes back to Proto-Indo-European *Hreh₃d- (“to gnaw, scrape”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is the past tense rroase in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (c. 1500–1520), Psalm 79.^[9][6][3] MDA2 dates the word to the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[2] Tiktin also cites a personal name Roade-mei from about 1578.^[3]

Semantic evolution

From gnawing with the teeth the verb moved to wearing things away by friction and long use, and figuratively to thoughts and feelings that torment someone.^[5][3] Tiktin quotes îndoiala îl rodea “doubt gnawed at him”.^[3] Reflexively it once meant acquiring polish and manners.^[3][5]

Many phrases use it: a roade urechile cuiva “to keep nagging someone” and a roade pragul cuiva “to call on someone too often”.^[5][2] Its derivatives are the participle ros “gnawed, worn”, and the nouns rosătură and rosură.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – rroase in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9][6]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[2]
• c. 1578 – the personal name Roade-mei.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To gnaw, nibble: to bite small pieces off something hard.^[5][2][1]
2. (figurative, of thoughts and feelings) to torment, consume.^[5][2]
3. (regional) to munch something in the mouth.^[5]
4. To wear away by friction or long use, to corrode, and of rough things to chafe the skin.^[5][1]
5. (rare, reflexive, figurative) to acquire polish and manners.^[5][3]

Word family

• rosătură
• rosură

Related words

• ros
• Latin rōdō

Usage notes

Roade is also the plural of rod “fruit, crop”.^[10]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 717
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. roade
4. ^ a b c d 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. roade
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 958
6. ^ a b c d Buchi, Éva; Schweickard, Wolfgang, eds. (2008–), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman (DÉRom), Nancy: ATILF, http://www.atilf.fr/DERom
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 149
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 7358
9. ^ 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 79:14
10. ^ DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 959