topi

Forms

topi (third-person singular present topește, past participle topit) 4th conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic топити (topiti, “to warm, to heat”), a loan from the Slavonic of the church.^[2][3][4][1] Ciorănescu follows Miklosich, Cihac and Conev here, and compares Polish topić and Russian топить (topitʹ).^[2] The Slavonic verb continues Proto-Slavic *topiti, with Serbo-Croatian topiti and Bulgarian топя (topja) among its cognates.^[1] In Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Czech the verb also means “to immerse, soak, flood”, and Vasmer calls all the proposed further connections guesswork.^[5] Wiktionary traces it to Proto-Indo-European *tep- (“hot, warm”), comparing Sanskrit तापयति (tāpáyati, “to heat, to torment”).^[1]

The verb is also found south of the Danube: Aromanian tuchescu and Megleno-Romanian tupés.^[2][6][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 67:3), and MDA2 dates the verb from the same psalter, c. 1573–1578.^[4][3] The sense there is “to melt”, as in the verse Tiktin quotes from Coresi's psalter (Psalm 67:2): „Cum topeaște-se ceara de fața focului, așa să piară păcătoșii de fața Zeului” “as wax melts before the fire, so let the sinners perish before God”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

From melting by heat the verb took in dissolving, as of sugar in water, and the soaking of hemp and flax to free the fibres;^[8] Tiktin quotes Alecsandri on the peasant woman who gathers the hemp, retts it and beats it.^[4][9] Figurative senses followed: to consume or waste, as health and fortune in Ghica, and to wipe out an enemy, as in Neculce's account of the Cossacks and Poles whom the Moldavians “melted” so that none was left.^[4] As a reflexive verb it means to pine away, to vanish and, in colloquial speech, to be dying for someone or with laughter.^[9][3] Ciorănescu also records a slang sense “to make off”.^[2]

The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons gloss forms of the verb with Slavonic words for melting away.^[8] Klein's dictionary of 1801 renders topesc with Latin liquefacio, Hungarian olvasztani and German ausbrennen.^[10] Romanian derived topilă “retting pond”, topitor and topitorie “foundry” from it, beside topliță, a separate loan from Slavonic топлица (toplica), and the old toplotă “warm water”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1573–1578 – the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 67:3), the first record.^[4][3]
• 1649 – topesc in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[8]
• 17th century – toplotă “warm water”, from Slavonic.^[2]
• 1688 – forms of the verb throughout the Bucharest Bible, as in Genesis 41:30.^[11]
• 1801 – topesc in Klein's dictionary.^[10]

Meanings

Verb

1. To melt, to turn or be turned from solid to liquid by heat; to liquefy.^[9][3] Reflexive: to soften, to lose firmness in the heat.^[9][3][1]
2. (figurative) To soften someone's heart; reflexive, to be moved.^[9][3]
3. (colloquial) To dissolve in water or another liquid; reflexive, figuratively, to merge, to fuse into one mass.^[9][3]
4. Reflexive, of candles and things in a fire: to burn away;^[12][13][1] (figurative) of people, to waste away, to grow thin;^[12][13][1] (colloquial) to disappear, to make off.^[9][3]
5. To ret hemp or flax, soaking the stems in water or leaving them under snow or dew to free the fibres.^[9][3]
6. Reflexive, (figurative): to fade, to blur, to scatter.^[9][3]
7. (figurative) To destroy, to wipe out; to squander money, property or health.^[9][3]

Word family

• topenie
• topilă
• topitor
• topitură
• topitorie

Related words

• Aromanian tuchescu
• Old Church Slavonic топити (topiti)

Usage notes

Colloquial phrases: a se topi după cineva “to be madly in love with someone”, a se topi de râs “to laugh one's head off”, and the exclamation m-am topit! “I'm done for!”.^[9][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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. topi
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1240
4. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. topí
5. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress
6. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1053
7. ^ 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. 2, 211
8. ^ a b c Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro, p. s.v. topesc
9. ^ 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. 1132
10. ^ a b Gáldi, László (ed.) (1944), Samuel Klein: Dictionarium valachico-latinum. Primul dicționar al limbii române, Budapest: Királyi Magyar Pázmány Péter Tudományegyetemi Román Intézet (Klein's dictionary of 1801, with Gáldi's etymological study), p. 458
11. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 41:30
12. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 484
13. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. confidențial