spargere

Forms

spargere f (plural spargeri)^[1]

Etymology

It is the long infinitive of sparge (“to break”), formed from Romanian sparge + -re.^[2][3][1] The verb comes from spargō (“to scatter”).^[4][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in the Codicele Voronețean, in 2 Peter 2:6: „Cetățile sodomești și gomorești cu spargere osândi” “he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with destruction”.^[3] MDA2 dates it to Coresi's Carte de învățătură of 1581.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the old language the noun meant the scattering of an army, its defeat and destruction.^[2][5] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to render Slavonic words for ruin and destruction, and two of them for schism.^[6] DLRLC records the related sense of a split or dissension within an organisation.^[5] An arithmetic book of 1805 used it for division.^[7]

The everyday sense is the breaking of something into pieces, and MDA2 lists dozens of special senses, from the breaking up of a party to the cracking of nuts and the splitting of firewood.^[2][8] The sense of a break-in or burglary is recorded by Costinescu in 1870, who glosses it with French effraction, and Damé gives the phrase furt prin spargere “theft by breaking in”.^[9][10] This is now the main specialised sense.^[8][11]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – spargere “destruction” in the Codicele Voronețean.^[3]
• 1581 – in Coresi's Carte de învățătură.^[2]
• 1649 – Mardarie's lexicon glosses Slavonic words for ruin and destruction with it.^[6]
• 1688 – in the Bucharest Bible, Jeremiah 15:3.^[12]
• 1805 – “division” in an arithmetic book.^[7]
• 1870 – “breaking; break-in” in Costinescu's dictionary.^[9]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of breaking or being broken, and its result.^[8][2]
2. A burglary: theft by forcing a lock or breaking in.^[8][13]
3. The breaking up of a gathering or party as the guests leave.^[2]
4. (dated) The rout or destruction of an army or enemy.^[5][2]
5. A split or dissension in an organisation.^[5]

Related words

• spart
• spărgător

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 941
3. ^ a b c Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. spargere
4. ^ 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. sparge
5. ^ a b c d Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 183
6. ^ 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. spargere
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spargere
8. ^ a b c d DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1036
9. ^ a b Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 539
10. ^ Damé, Frédéric (1893–1895), Nouveau dictionnaire roumain-français, 4 vols., Bucarest: Imprimerie de l'État, p. s.v. spargere
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1226
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Jer 15:3
13. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. spargere