tăia

Forms

tăia (first-person singular present tai, third-person singular taie, past participle tăiat), 1st conjugation^[1] In the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet the word was written тэя.^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin tāliō (“to cut”).^[2][3][1][4] MDA2 gives the Latin verb as a reconstruction.^[3] It survives in all four branches: Aromanian talj, Megleno-Romanian tal'u and Istro-Romanian talʼå.^[2][5][6][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian tagliare, French tailler, Catalan tallar, Spanish tajar and Portuguese talhar.^[2]

The Late Latin verb is recorded from the 6th century, after the compound intertāliō (“to prune”) of the 4th; its first sense was probably “to prune”, and it is formed on tālea (“cutting, slip of a plant”).^[8][1][9] De Vaan finds no convincing etymology for the noun.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the early 16th-century Psaltirea Hurmuzaki: tăiară “they cut down” in Psalm 73:7.^[11][3] In the Codicele Voronețean the soldiers cut the ropes of the boat (Acts 27:32).^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

Beside the basic sense “to cut”, the old texts use the verb for killing: beheading a man or slaughtering an animal.^[13][12][14] From “cut” came “to carve”, “to shorten the way”, “to cross” (of a road or river), “to cut short, interrupt” and “to delete”.^[2][14] The old sense “to mint coins” is now obsolete.^[14][2] Reflexive uses include milk that curdles and fabric that splits.^[14][2] Card players use the verb both for cutting the pack and for trumping a card.^[2][15]

The noun tăiței “noodles” and the adjective tăios “sharp” belong to the same family.^[2] strătăia was coined by Vlahuță after French entrecouper.^[2]

Timeline

• early 16th century – tăiară in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki (Psalm 73:7), the first record.^[11][3]
• c. 1563–1583 – in the Codicele Voronețean (Acts 27:32).^[12][13]
• 1570 – tăia in Coresi's Psalter.^[16]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cut: to divide into pieces with a blade or by other means; to cut down, fell; to cut a path through.^[14]
2. (transitive) To delete part of a text; to carve, engrave.^[14]
3. (transitive) Of a road or river: to cross; of people: to take a short cut.^[14]
4. (transitive and reflexive) To kill with a blade; to slaughter an animal; to wound oneself.^[14]
5. (transitive and reflexive) To interrupt, stop: a tăia calea cuiva “to bar someone's way”; to weaken an appetite or a pain.^[14]
6. (reflexive) Of milk: to curdle; of fabric: to split along the threads.^[14]
7. (card games) To cut the pack; to beat a card with a higher one.^[2][15]

Word family

• tăiat
• tăiere
• tăietor
• tăietură
• tăiței
• tăios
• tăiș
• strătăia

Related words

• talie
• detaliu
• Latin tālea

Usage notes

A tăia nodul gordian means “to cut the Gordian knot”, and a-și tăia craca de sub picioare “to saw off the branch one is sitting on”.^[14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j 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. tăia
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1166
4. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8542
5. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 995
6. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 288
7. ^ Kovačec, August (1998), Istrorumunjsko-hrvatski rječnik (s gramatikom i tekstovima), Pula
8. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
10. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
11. ^ a b Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 73:7
12. ^ 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. tăia
13. ^ a b c Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. tăia
14. ^ 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. 1106
15. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. tăia
16. ^ Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Ungureanu, Mădălina; Moruz, Alexandru et al., roPsalt: Re-evaluating the Sixteenth Century Romanian Psalters (aligned corpus), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. Ps 76:8