stop

Forms

stop interjection; neuter noun (plural stopuri, for the noun senses).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French stop and directly borrowed from English stop: DEX, NODEX, MDA2, Marcu & Maneca and Scriban name both languages.^{[2][4][3][5][6]} French had taken the interjection from English in 1792; the English form is the imperative of the verb “to stop, halt”.^[7][1] The English verb is of Germanic origin, like Dutch stoppen; an older view derived the whole Germanic family from Vulgar Latin *stuppō (“to stop up”), from Latin stuppa (“tow”).^[7] Graur groups the Romanian word with stupă “tow” and astupa “to stop up”, descendants of the Latin word, and with the verb stopa, from French stopper.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is in Dunăreanu, where a guard shouts „Stop!” to halt a barge.^[3][9] Scriban's dictionary of 1939 already lists the interjection, marked as a barbarism, as the command given to someone steering a ship.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The word came in as a command in shipping and sport: “stop!”, “halt!”.^[9][6] In telegrams it took the place of the full stop, marking the end of a sentence.^[2][9] As a neuter noun it came to name the traffic light at a crossroads and the red brake light at the back of a car, and in sport the sudden stopping of the ball or puck.^[2][5] Colloquial phrases include a se pune stopul “the light turns red”.^[3] Film language formed the compounds stop-cadru “freeze frame” and stop-camera, and Dimitrescu records stop-cadru in the press from 1976.^[2][10] Medicine has stop cardiac “cardiac arrest”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1939 – Scriban lists stop as a barbarism, a command to a ship's crew.^[6]
• 1976 – stop-cadru “freeze frame” in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Interjection

1. stop!, halt!^[2][3]
2. (in telegrams) A conventional word marking the end of a sentence, a full stop.^[2][3]

Noun

1. (sports) A sudden stopping of the ball, in football, or of the puck, in hockey.^[2][3]
2. A traffic light at a crossroads; a red-orange brake light at the back of a vehicle.^[2][3]
3. (film) In the compounds stop-cadru, the freezing of a single frame before the motion resumes, and stop-camera, a trick technique in which the camera and the actors stop while the scene is changed.^[2][3]
4. (medicine) Stop cardiac: cardiac arrest.^[5][11]

Related words

• stopa
• stupă
• astupa
• English stop

Usage notes

DEX gives the plural stopuri only for the noun senses.^[2] NODEX numbers the interjection and the noun as two headwords, stop¹ and stop², but traces both to French and English stop.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1, 1055
3. ^ 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, 995
4. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. stop
5. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. stop
6. ^ a b c d Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1247
7. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 94
9. ^ a b c Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 245
10. ^ a b Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. stop
11. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. stop