roti

Forms

roti (third-person singular present rotește, past participle rotit), 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is a verb formed from Romanian roată (“wheel”).^[2][3][4][1] The noun continues Latin rota (“wheel”).^[1] A rare variant of the first conjugation, rota, is also recorded.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1703.^[4] MDA2's first record is Nicolae Costin's chronicle of Moldavia, where a general and his cavalry begin to wheel about: „Au început Baur generalul cu călărimea a se mișca și a se roti” “General Baur began, with the cavalry, to move and to wheel about”.^[3][5]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is that of moving in a circle, said of horsemen, birds and things that turn round.^[4][5] Folk speech used the verb for dancing in a ring, and a peacock or a cock was said to se roti when it spread its tail, a sense Damé glosses with French faire la roue.^[6][7] From this display, Șăineanu records a figurative a se roti “to show off”.^[8] Of water the verb describes eddies and rings spreading on the surface, and of the eyes a look cast all around.^[2][4] A figurative reflexive sense, to hover around someone to win their favour, is also recorded.^[2][3] Under communism the verb was also used of moving an official from one high post to another, a use Dimitrescu documents in the press of the 1990s.^[9]

Timeline

• 1703 – the first record Tiktin gives.^[4]
• 1893–1895 – Damé records a se roti of a peacock spreading its tail and of birds circling in the air.^[6]
• 1929 – Șăineanu records the figurative sense “to show off”.^[8]
• 1993 – a press quotation for an official “rotated” to another post under communism.^[9]

Meanings

Verb

1. (reflexive) To move in circles, to wheel: Ulii se roteau deasupra câmpului. “The hawks were circling above the field.”^[2][3]
2. (transitive) To rotate, to turn round;^[2][3] (reflexive, popular) to dance moving in a ring.^[2][3]
3. (reflexive, of water) To form eddies or rings on the surface.^[2][3]
4. (reflexive) To turn around someone or something.^[2]
5. (reflexive, figurative) To hang about someone, trying to win their favour.^[2][3]
6. (transitive) To cast one's eyes or look all around.^[2][4]
7. (transitive, often figurative) To whirl a weapon or a stick in the air above one's head.^[2]
8. (reflexive and transitive, of birds) To spread the tail feathers and wings in the mating season; to fluff up.^[2][3]
9. (politics, communist era) To move an official from one high post to another.^[9]

Related words

• roată

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 963
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, 729
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. rotí
5. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. roti
6. ^ a b Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. roti
7. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 3, 777
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 554
9. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. rotí