schimbare

Forms

schimbare f (plural schimbări)^[1]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian schimba + -re: the long infinitive of the verb “to change”, used as a noun.^[2][1][3][4] The verb continues Vulgar Latin *excambiō (“to exchange”), made of ex and Late Latin cambiō (“to exchange”).^[5][2][1] Ciorănescu explains the Romanian shape by a metathesis of the ⟨i⟩, a change also seen in aibă from Latin habeat and in roib from rubeum.^[5] Its Romance cognates include Italian scambiare, Occitan escambiar and French échanger.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The noun is found in the earliest Romanian psalter: the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, has schimbare at Psalm 54:22, and the Psaltirea Scheiană has it in the same psalm and at Psalm 76:10.^[6][3] Tiktin glosses the word “exchange, change, alteration”.^[3] MDA2 gives Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581 as its first record.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the old texts the noun has the verb's two main senses.^[7] One is an exchange, one thing given for another: the Bible of 1688 has „voi da fie argint schimbare viei aceștiia” “I will give either silver in exchange for this vineyard”.^[7][8] The other is change itself: Nicolae Costin wrote of „căderile și schimbările stăpâniei” “the falls and changes of the rule” of the Romans.^[7] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it from 1649 on to render Slavonic words for change, transformation and transfiguration.^[9]

The Church gave the word a fixed phrase: Schimbarea la Față, the Transfiguration of Christ, a feast kept on 6 August.^[3][4] The Lexicon de la Buda of 1825 has this sense beside the exchange of money and the change of the times.^[10] Later special senses include the moult of feathers, hair or teeth, the removal of someone from a post and the changing into clean clothes.^[2] An obsolete phrase fără schimbare meant “without a break”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1500-1520 – schimbare in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, Psalm 54:22, the first record.^[6]
• c. 1573-1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană, Psalms 54:22 and 76:10.^[11][3]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[2]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon, for Slavonic words of change.^[9]
• 1688 – thirteen times in the Bucharest Bible, among them the exchange of a vineyard.^[8][7]
• 1825 – the Lexicon de la Buda records the exchange of money and the Transfiguration of Christ.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. change: the act of changing or being changed, and its result.^[4][1]
2. An exchange of one thing for another, especially of money for other coins or notes of about the same value.^[2][7]
3. The moulting or shedding of feathers, hair or teeth, which are replaced by new ones.^[2]
4. The removal of someone from a post or task and their replacement by another person.^[2]
5. Schimbarea la Față: the Transfiguration of Christ, an Orthodox feast kept on 6 August.^[4][3]

Related words

• schimba
• schimb

Usage notes

Wiktionary lists the set phrases schimbare climatică “climate change” and schimbare de sex “sex change”.^[1]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 805
3. ^ 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. schimbare
4. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 989
5. ^ 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. schimba
6. ^ 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 54:22
7. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. schimbare
8. ^ a b Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. 3 Kings 21:2
9. ^ 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. schimbare
10. ^ 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. 617
11. ^ 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 76:10