schimba

Forms

schimba (third-person singular present schimbă, past participle schimbat, third-person subjunctive schimbe) 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *excambiō (“to exchange”), from ex- (“out”) and Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The Late Latin verb is of Gaulish origin.^[5][6] DER cites Pușcariu and the REW, and explains the Romanian vowel by a metathesis of the /i/, as in aibă from habeat and roib from rubeum.^[2] Tiktin thinks the /i/ of the stem came from /î/ palatalised by the following /i/, and MDA2 records the old variant scâmba and the regional știmba.^[7][3]

It survives south of the Danube as Megleno-Romanian schimb.^[2][8] Its Romance cognates include Italian scambiare, Occitan escambiar and French échanger.^[2][5] Albanian shkëmbej is a loan from the same Latin verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb occurs in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century (schimba, schimbară, schimbat).^[9][10] MDA2's first record is a text printed in Gaster's chrestomathy, dated before 1550–1600.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The oldest sense is to replace one thing with another or give it in exchange: Coresi has „schimbă frica și rușinea spre mânie” “he changed fear and shame into anger”, and a deed of 1646 lets two farmers „să-ș schimbe pământurile” “exchange their lands”.^[4] From exchange came changing money and changing clothes (a se schimba “to put on clean clothes”), and the REW notes the plural schimburi for the clean linen one changes into.^[11][5] The sense “to alter, transform” is as old, and reflexively the verb is used of people, of the weather, and of a face that changes colour.^[11][7]

Romanian formed from it the postverbal noun schimb “exchange, shift”, schimbare, schimbător “changeable” and preschimba.^[2][1]

Timeline

• early 16th century – schimba in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[9]
• before 1550–1600 – the text in Gaster's chrestomathy that MDA2 gives as the first record.^[3]
• 1570 – schimb in Coresi's Psalter.^[12]
• 1646 – să-ș schimbe pământurile “exchange their lands” in a deed.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To replace one thing or person with another of the same kind.^[11][3]
2. (transitive) To exchange, to give something for another thing of equal value; to change money into other coins or notes.^[11][1]
3. (transitive) To alter, modify, transform;^[11][1] (reflexive) to change, of people or the weather.^[11][1]
4. (reflexive and transitive) To change one's clothes, put on clean ones.^[11]
5. (transitive) To move to another place; to transfer from a post.^[11][3]

Word family

• schimb
• schimbăcios
• schimbător
• neschimbat
• preschimba
• schimbare

Related words

• Albanian shkëmbej

Usage notes

A schimba vorba means “to change the subject”, a schimba câteva vorbe “to have a short talk” and a schimba tonul or a schimba foaia “to change one's tune”.^[11][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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. schimba
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, 805
4. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. schimba
5. ^ a b c d Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 2949
6. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
7. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. schimbá
8. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 260
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 101:28
10. ^ 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 105:21
11. ^ 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. 989
12. ^ 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 48:7
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. schimba