ruptură

Forms

ruptură f (plural rupturi)^[1] An old variant is rumtură: Dosoftei writes of a nobleman who held „rumturile” “the rags” of his shirt in both hands.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian rupt + -ură, from the participle of rupe “to break, tear”.^[5][3][2] Ciorănescu, Scriban and Wiktionary allow that it may continue Latin ruptūra (“fracture”) directly.^[6][4][1] Pușcariu took it from the Latin word, which he listed beside Italian rottura, French roture, Spanish rotura and Portuguese rotura, and he gave Aromanian aruptură as the Aromanian form.^[7][8] The Latin noun is formed on rumpō (“to break”).^[9][1] Marcu gives French rupture as the source of the modern senses “breach of relations” and the medical “rupture”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears as a place name, Ruptura, in the Slavonic charters of 1422 and 1425, and as a personal name in 1434 and 1490.^[2] As a common noun MDA2 dates it to Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where the plural rumturi means the rags of a torn shirt.^[3][2]

Semantic evolution

Its senses cover the act of breaking or tearing, the place where something is torn (a tear in cloth, a gap, a hole), a piece torn off, and a rag.^[5][2] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 also gives the senses “fracture”, “collapse” and “hernia”, and Ciorănescu lists “hernia” too.^[11][6]

The figurative “breach, break-up”, of friendship or of peace, is in Scriban and Șăineanu.^[4][12] Of land, a ruptură is a place torn away by water, and ruptură de pantă is the point where a slope suddenly steepens.^[5] As a Moldovan regionalism it is a ditch cut by rainwater.^[13] In Maramureș it is a place name tied to land worked for a share of the crop.^[14]

Timeline

• 1422 – Ruptura, a place name in the Slavonic charters.^[2]
• 1434 – Ruptura as a personal name.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – rumturi “rags” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints, the first record as a common noun.^[3][2]
• 1688 – ruptură in the Bucharest Bible.^[15]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda lists the senses “tear”, “fracture”, “collapse” and “hernia”.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of breaking or tearing; a break in the continuity of a material.^[5][3]
2. (figurative) A breach or break-up of relations or of a collaboration;^[5][10] ruptura dintre cele două țări.^[5][10]
3. A place where something is torn or broken: a tear, gap or hole; land torn away by floodwater;^[5] ruptură de pantă, the point where a slope suddenly steepens.^[5]
4. A piece torn off something; a rag.^[5][2]
5. (medicine) A sudden break in an organ; a hernia.^[10][6]

Related words

• rupe
• rupere
• Latin ruptūra

Usage notes

MDA2 lists ruptură de nori “cloudburst” and the adverbial phrase fără ruptură “without a break”.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. ruptură
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 738
4. ^ a b c Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1143
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. 968
6. ^ a b c 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. ruptură
7. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 133
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
9. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ruptură
11. ^ 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. 599
12. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 557
13. ^ Stati, Vasile (2003), Dicționar moldovenesc-românesc, Chișinău, p. 264
14. ^ Ștef, Dorin (2021), Dicționar de regionalisme și arhaisme din județul Maramureș, 3rd ed., Baia Mare, p. s.v. ruptură
15. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Micah 2:13