sorbi

Forms

sorbi (third-person singular present soarbe, past participle sorbit, third-person subjunctive soarbă) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *sorbiō (“to sip”), the fourth-conjugation form that replaced classical sorbeō (“to drink, suck up”).^[2][3][1] Ciorănescu, MDA2 and DLR give the classical verb as the etymon.^[4][5][6] The word survives in Aromanian as sorbu, with the infinitives ⟨soarbire⟩ and ⟨surghire⟩.^[4][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian sorbire, Occitan sorbir, Catalan sorbir, Spanish sorber and Portuguese sorver.^[4][8]

The Latin verb is from Proto-Indo-European *srebʰ- (“to sip, slurp”), with cognates such as Ancient Greek ῥοφέω (rhophéō, “to gulp down”) and Lithuanian surbti (“to suck”).^[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is from 1680.^[2] MDA2 first cites Dosoftei's lives of the saints (1682–1686), where the earth opens and swallows a man alive: „l-au sorbit de viu” “it swallowed him alive”.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The verb has meant both “to sip, drink in little draughts” and “to swallow, engulf” since the old texts.^[2][6] Neculce tells of a man served coffee who drained the cup in one draught as if it were any other drink.^[2] From drinking it passed to breathing in air or scents, and to taking something in with the eyes or ears: a sorbi din ochi “to devour with one's eyes”, a sorbi cuvintele cuiva “to hang on someone's words”.^[3][2] The figurative sense “to absorb, captivate” follows.^[3][5]

The idiom a sorbi pe cineva într-o lingură de apă says either that one loves someone dearly or that one cannot stand them.^[3][5] A-i sorbi cuiva zilele meant “to kill someone”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1680 – first record.^[2]
• 1682–1686 – sorbit “swallowed” in Dosoftei's lives of the saints.^[5][2]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible (Lamentations 3:48).^[10]
• c. 1743 – Neculce's story of a man draining a cup of coffee.^[2]
• 1862 – Pontbriant glosses it with French humer “to sip”.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To sip: to drink by drawing a liquid into the mouth a little at a time with pursed lips: Își sorbea ceaiul încet. “She was slowly sipping her tea.”^[3][5][1]
2. To drink quickly and greedily, draining the glass in one gulp.^[3][5]
3. To swallow, engulf;^[3][5] (figurative) to absorb, captivate.^[3][5]
4. To breathe in deeply (air, wind, scents).^[3][1]

Word family

• sorbeală
• sorbitură
• sorbitor
• sorbire

Related words

• Aromanian sorbu
• Latin sorbeō

Usage notes

The verb has a fourth-conjugation infinitive but a present without -esc: sorb, sorbi, soarbe;^[2][3] Banat has surbi.^[2][3] Set phrases: a sorbi cuvintele cuiva “to listen to someone with rapt attention” and a sorbi pe cineva din ochi “to gaze at someone with great love”.^[3][12]

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 j k Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. sorbi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1034
4. ^ 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. sorbi
5. ^ 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, 935
6. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. sorbi
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 964
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8094
9. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Plânsurile Ieremiei 3:48
11. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 689
12. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. sorbi