suporta

Forms

suporta (third-person singular present suportă, past participle suportat) 1st conjugation^[1] An older variant supurta occurs in Șincai's chronicle: „scutindu-i de toate dările și greutățile care le supurta proștii” “exempting them from all the taxes and burdens that the common people bore”.^[2][3] Old texts also have the third person supoartă: Alecsandri writes „ruina-ți s-o supoarte” “to bear your ruin”.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French supporter, and also borrowed from Latin supportāre, the two sources that DLR, MDA2, NODEX and the neologism dictionaries name;^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][1]} DEX and DILF give only French.^[6][7] Tiktin names Latin alone.^[8]

The Latin verb is formed with sub- and portō (“to carry”) and meant “to carry up, convey”;^[9][10] Late Latin gave it the senses “to tolerate, endure” and “to support”.^[9][10] The French verb is a 14th-century relatinised form of Old French soporter.^[9] Graur groups the verb with the other Romanian descendants of that Latin verb, among them purta, comporta, importa and transporta.^[11] Italian sopportare and Spanish soportar continue the Latin verb.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2 dates the first record to a calendar printed before 1794, and Tiktin's to Șincai's chronicle of about 1812.^[3][8] In Șincai the verb means to bear a burden, the taxes and duties the common people had to carry.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The oldest senses are concrete and financial: to have something as one's charge, to bear costs and duties (a suporta cheltuielile “to bear the costs”), and to hold up a weight, as when Codru-Drăgușanu describes a column that once bore Trajan's statue.^[2][8] From bearing a load came the figurative “to endure, put up with”, now the main sense in DEX, and then, mostly in negative sentences, “to tolerate, allow”.^[6][12] In 20th-century journalese the verb also means to finance.^[13]

Timeline

• before 1794 – the first record, in a calendar.^[3]
• c. 1812 – supurta “to bear (taxes)” in Șincai's chronicle.^[8][2]
• 19th century – “to bear a weight”, in Codru-Drăgușanu and Alecsandri.^[2]
• 1929 – Șăineanu defines it as “to resist” and “to bear patiently”.^[14]

Meanings

Verb

1. To endure, bear or suffer something unpleasant: Nu suport frigul. “I can't stand the cold.”^[6][14][1]
2. To tolerate, put up with or allow someone or something, usually with a negative.^[6][4]
3. To hold up a weight or load; to withstand.^[6][3]
4. To take on a financial obligation: Firma suportă cheltuielile de transport. “The firm bears the transport costs.”^[6][8]

Related words

• suport
• purta
• comporta
• transporta
• French supporter

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. suporta
3. ^ a b c d e f Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1063
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. suporta
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. suporta
6. ^ a b c d e f g DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1075
7. ^ a b Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria, p. 2, s.v. suporta
8. ^ a b c d e Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. suporta
9. ^ a b c Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. supporter
10. ^ a b Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. sopportare
11. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 74
12. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 311
13. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. suporta
14. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 629