spulbera

Forms

spulbera (third-person singular present spulberă, past participle spulberat, third-person subjunctive spulbere), 1st conjugation^[1] Old texts have spurbăra and regional speech has spulbăra.^[2][3][4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *expulverō (“to raise dust”), a reconstructed Latin verb from pulvis (“dust”).^{[5][2][6][3][7][8][1]} Romanian pulbere “dust” continues the same Latin noun.^[3][5][9]

The verb survives south of the Danube as Aromanian spulbir.^[5][10][11] Romance verbs of the same formation include Italian spolverare and Spanish despolvorear.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word first appears as a surname, Radu Spulber, in a Wallachian document of 1635.^[3] As a verb it is recorded in Dosoftei's verse Psalter, in the form spurbăra.^[2][4] Tiktin's first verbal record is from Dosoftei in 1681.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense is physical: the wind lifts dust, snow or leaves and scatters them.^[6][3][2] A Romanian psalter describes the dust „ce-l spulberă vântul de pre fața pământului” “that the wind scatters from the face of the earth”.^[3] From this came the figurative sense, to scatter or destroy as if into dust: armies, hopes, ideas.^[6][3][2] The reflexive a se spulbera means “to turn to dust, to vanish”, and in Transylvania a se spulbera pe cineva “to fly into a rage at someone”.^[3][5]

Derivatives include spulberat “scattered” and spulberătură “a cloud of blown snow or dust”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1635 – the surname Radu Spulber in a Wallachian document, the first record.^[3]
• 1681 – the verb in Dosoftei.^[3]
• 1688 – spulbera and spulberând in the Bucharest Bible.^[12]
• 1815 – „cum spulbără vântul praful şi pleava” “as the wind scatters the dust and chaff”.^[7]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive, reflexive; of the wind) To whirl up and scatter dust, snow or leaves; to be scattered.^[6][2][1]
2. (figurative) To destroy completely;^[6][2] (reflexive) to vanish: Toate speranțele i s-au spulberat. “All his hopes were dashed.”^[6][2]
3. (regional, reflexive, with pe) To fly into a rage at someone.^[5][3]

Word family

• spulber
• spulberat
• spulberătură
• spulberare

Related words

• pulbere
• Aromanian spulbir

References

1. ^ a b c 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, 964
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. spulbera
4. ^ a b Candrea, I.-A.; Densusianu, Ov. (1907–1914), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române: elementele latine (A–Putea), București
5. ^ a b c d e f g 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. spulbera
6. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1043
7. ^ a b Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. spulbera
8. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6842
9. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
10. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 970
11. ^ Pascu, Giorge (1925), Dictionnaire étymologique macédoroumain, 2 vols. (I: Les éléments latins et romans; II: Les éléments grecs, turcs, slaves, albanais, germaniques, magyars, néologismes, créations immédiates, obscurs), Iași: Cultura Națională, p. 1, 148
12. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Iov 2:12