teafăr

Forms

teafăr m or n (feminine singular teafără, masculine plural teferi, feminine/neuter plural tefere)^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown.^[2][3][1][4] Ciorănescu thinks it could be Modern Greek σταθερός (statherós, “constant, steady, stable”), but does not commit himself to it.^[2][1] He finds the earlier proposals no more convincing.^[2] Tiktin suggested an Old Bulgarian possessive adjective meaning “their”, matched by a modern Bulgarian form, while admitting that the change of meaning would be hard to explain.^[5][2] Giuglea proposed a Greek source of his own.^[2] Scriban compared Old Church Slavonic твръдъ (tvrŭdŭ, “hard, firm”), and Șăineanu derived the word from it.^[6][7][8] Ciorănescu leaves open whether teferici is connected with it.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin and MDA2 date the first record to 1821, in Alecu Beldiman's Eterie, a work on the troubles caused in Moldavia by the Greek rising under Alexandru Ipsilanti.^[5][9] The sense there is “unharmed, safe and sound”.^[5][9]

Semantic evolution

The word describes a person or a body that has come to no harm: someone returns home teafăr “safe and sound”, and teafăr și nevătămat is a set pair.^[5][3] From physical soundness it passed to a sound mind: nu ești teafăr means “you are not in your right mind”.^[5][10] Tiktin quotes Eminescu for this word: „Vom fi voioși și teferi” “we shall be cheerful and well”.^[5]

Timeline

• 1821 – first record, in Alecu Beldiman's Eterie.^[5][9]
• 1929 – Șăineanu's dictionary gives a sense “with a clean name”.^[7]

Meanings

Adjective

1. unharmed, whole, healthy: having come to no harm;^[3][9][1] a scăpat teafăr din accident “he came out of the accident unhurt”.^[3][9][1]
2. Of sound mind, in one's right mind.^[3][9]

Usage notes

The plural is teferi (masculine) and tefere (feminine).^[3][1] MDA2 and Tiktin record the regional variants teafăn and teafur.^[9][5]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f 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. teafăr
3. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1111
4. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. teafăr
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. teafăr
6. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1, 1305
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 644
8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org, p. s.v. твръдъ
9. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1187
10. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 403