traversa

Forms

a traversa (third-person singular present traversează, past participle traversat), 1st conjugation^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French traverser (“to cross”).^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The French verb is recorded from about 980 and comes from Vulgar Latin *traversō, a popular alteration of Latin trānsversō (“to stir crosswise; to cross”), which is built on trānsversus (“lying across”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

MDA2's first record is Ion Ghica's Amintiri din pribegia după 1848, letters to Vasile Alecsandri printed in 1889 (the year in the title is not the date of the record).^[2] There Ghica writes „Am traversat capitale inemice” “I crossed hostile capitals”, with the sense “to travel through”.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its senses are those of French: to go from one side of a street, a road or a river to the other, and to travel across mountains, countries or seas.^[3][2] Eminescu uses it of crossing a snowy field.^[4] Of a road or path, it means to cut across a place: Șăineanu's example is an alley crossing a garden.^[7] The figurative “to live through, to endure” a period, as in going through a moral crisis, is in DEX and the neologism dictionaries.^[3][8] Marcu also lists a naval sense, to stow the anchor or set a yard across the deck.^[5]

Timeline

• 1889 – traversat “crossed” in Ion Ghica's letters, the first record.^[2][4]
• 1929 – Șăineanu's dictionary gives “to cross” and “to cut across”.^[7]
• 1986 – the figurative sense “to live through” in Marcu and Maneca.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To cross, to go from one side of a street, a road or a river to the other: Copiii traversează strada la semafor. “The children cross the street at the traffic light.”^[3][2]
2. (transitive) To travel across or through mountains, countries or seas; to cut across.^[3][9]
3. (figurative) To live through, to endure a period: a traversa o criză “to go through a crisis”.^[3][5]
4. (nautical) To stow the anchor horizontally; to set a yard across the deck.^[5]

Word family

• traversare

Related words

• traversă
• French traverser

Usage notes

Traversa is also the articled form of the noun traversă “crossbeam; railway sleeper”.^[3] MDA2 records a nonstandard variant tramversa.^[2]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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, 1262
3. ^ 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. 1, 1141
4. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. traversa
5. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. traversa
6. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 664
8. ^ a b Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. traversa
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. traversa