topor

Forms

topor n (plural topoare)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic топоръ (toporŭ, “axe”).^[2][3][4][1] The Slavic word is found as Bulgarian топор (topor), Russian топор (topor) and Polish topór, and goes back to Proto-Slavic *toporъ.^[2][5][1] Vasmer did not exclude a Slavic formation, but held that it cannot be separated from Iranian words for “axe” and is probably a loan from Proto-Iranian *tapara- (“axe”);^[5][1] Wiktionary also gives an Iranian source.^[5][1] Ciorănescu thought it looked like an Oriental word.^[2]

Aromanian has tãpor and tupor, also borrowed from Slavic.^[2][6][7][1] In Hungarian, topor is of Slavic origin, perhaps partly through Romanian;^[8] TESz suggests that in Transylvania and among the Csángós it may be a Romanian loan.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin dates the first record to 1493, a Romanian word in a Slavonic charter.^[9] In Romanian texts MDA2's first record is the Psaltirea Scheiană (c. 1573–1578).^[3][10] The sense was the axe for felling trees and splitting wood, also used as a weapon.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed that of the axe, a tool that in older times was also a weapon: a 1645 translation of Herodotus lists axes among the Tatars' arms.^[10] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons use it to translate Slavonic words for “axe”.^[11] Many phrases grew around it: din topor “roughly made, coarse”, coadă de topor “the tool of another in a bad deed”, which Tiktin ties to Grigore Alexandrescu's fable of the axe and the forest, a fi topor de oase “to bear great hardships”, and a sta cu toporul la brâu “to be always ready for a fight”.^[9][4][3] In Oltenia topor and secure have swapped meanings, according to Scriban.^[12]

Ciorănescu lists the derivatives toporan “soldier armed with an axe”, toporaș, the name of the violet and other plants, and toporișcă;^[2] toporiște “axe handle” he takes separately from Slavic.^[2]

Timeline

• 1493 – first record, in a Slavonic charter.^[9]
• c. 1573–1578 – in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[3]
• 1645 – topoară “axes” in a translation of Herodotus.^[10]
• 1649 – in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]
• 1660 – the diminutive toporaș in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[13]
• 1688 – toporul “the axe” in the Bucharest Bible.^[14]
• 1696 – a document requires a carter to carry an axe and an auger.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An axe: a tool for felling trees and splitting wood, a steel head with a cutting edge and a hole on the other side for a hard wooden handle.^[4][3]
2. Topor de piatră: a stone axe, a primitive tool and weapon.^[3]
3. Coadă de topor (figurative): a person used by another as a tool in a bad deed, a stooge.^[3][15]

Word family

• toporan
• toporaș
• toporășiu
• toporișcă

Related words

• toporiște
• Aromanian tãpor

Usage notes

Din topor means “without finesse, coarse, rough-hewn”;^[4] a fi topor de oase “to suffer much”;^[4] a sta cu toporul la brâu “to be always ready for a quarrel”.^[4] The popular a face cuiva un topor or a-i face cuiva chica topor means “to grab someone by the hair and shake him”.^[9][3]

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. topor
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1241
4. ^ a b c d e f DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1132
5. ^ a b c 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. 1038
7. ^ Cunia, Tiberius (2008), Dictsiunar a limbãljei armãneascã, Editsii Timpurarã (after T. Papahagi, Ș. Mihăileanu and I. Dalametra; online at dixionline.net), p. 1002
8. ^ a b Benkő, Loránd (ed.) (1967–1976), A magyar nyelv történeti-etimológiai szótára, 3 vols., Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, p. 3, 942
9. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. topór
10. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. topor
11. ^ a b 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. topor
12. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1330
13. ^ 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. toporaș
14. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Deuteronomy 19:5
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. topor