tremura

Forms

tremura (present tremur, third-person singular tremură, past participle tremurat, subjunctive tremure), 1st conjugation^[1][2] Old and regional variants include trămura, tremula and trâmbura.^[3][4] Tiktin quotes trămură from a folk poem: „Purdea... trămură ca ș-o vargă” “Purdea trembles like a rod”.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin tremulō, a verb formed on Latin tremulus (“trembling”), from tremō (“to tremble”).^{[4][3][2][1][6]} Wiktionary dates the Latin verb to a 7th-century manuscript.^[1]

The word survives in all four branches: Aromanian treambur, Megleno-Romanian tremur and Istro-Romanian tremur.^[4][7] Its Romance cognates include Italian tremolare, French trembler, Catalan tremolar and Spanish temblar.^[4][8] The verb cutremura (“to shake, quake”) belongs to the same family.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of about 1500–1520: „tremuraiu ca mlădițele” “I trembled like the twigs”.^[6][3][9]

Semantic evolution

The verb first described the shaking of living beings from fear, cold or illness, and the trembling of the earth.^[6][2] Later it was used of leaves swaying, light flickering, water rippling and a voice quivering with emotion.^[2][3] Figuratively it means to be seized by fear or by strong feeling, and a tremura după bani is to be greedy for money.^[2][3] Tiktin records a transitive use, “to make something tremble”, in Sadoveanu and Delavrancea.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – first record, in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki.^[3][6]
• c. 1573–1578 – tremura in the Psaltirea Scheiană.^[10]
• 1639 – va tremura, in a dated quotation of the DLR.^[6]
• 1649 – tremur in Mardarie's Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[11]

Meanings

Verb

1. To tremble, shiver: of people and animals, to make quick involuntary movements from cold, fear or illness.^[2][3][1]
2. Of leaves and plants, to sway lightly; of light, to flicker; of water, to ripple; of the ground, to quake.^[2]
3. Of sounds and voices, to quiver.^[2]
4. (figurative) To be seized by fear or strong emotion.^[2]

Word family

• tremur
• tremurător
• tremurătoare
• tremurătură
• tremurici
• tremuros

Related words

• cutremura
• Aromanian treambur

Usage notes

A-i tremura cuiva dinții în gură is to have one's teeth chattering.^[3] A tremura după bani is to be greedy for money.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1144
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1273
4. ^ a b c d e 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. tremura
5. ^ a b Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. tremura
6. ^ 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. tremura
7. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1045
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 8879
9. ^ 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 17:9
10. ^ 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 103:33
11. ^ Ungureanu, Mădălina; Gînsac, Ana-Maria; Moruz, Alexandru (eds.), eRomLex: The First Romanian Bilingual Dictionaries (17th century), Iași: Universitatea „Alexandru Ioan Cuza”, https://scriptadacoromanica.ro