trezi

Forms

trezi (third-person singular present trezește, past participle trezit), fourth conjugation^[1] The older form trezvi is in the Bible of 1688: „Și să trezvi Noe den vin” “and Noah woke from his wine” (Genesis 9:24).^[2] Neculce has it too, of an emperor who fainted at the sight of bloodshed: „l-au udat împărăteasa cu niște apă și s-au trezvit” “the empress splashed him with some water and he came to”.^[2] Tiktin also records the Oltenian form trăzvi.^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic трѣзвити (trězviti), a reflexive verb meaning “to be sober, to keep oneself in check”.^{[3][4][2][5][1]} The Slavonic verb belongs with the adjective трѣзвъ (trězvŭ, “sober”), the source of Romanian treaz “awake; sober”;^[3] Ciorănescu lists the verb among the derivatives of the adjective but takes it from the Slavonic verb.^[3] Cihac already compared the Slavonic forms and their Bulgarian and Slovene cognates.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is in the Codicele Voronețean (c. 1563–1583), at First Peter 4:7.^[2] MDA2 dates it to Varlaam's Cazania of 1643, where those who sleep are called to wake (să trezească).^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

The old texts use the verb both for waking from sleep and for coming round from drunkenness or a faint, as in the Bible of 1688 and in Neculce.^[2][7] Ciorănescu adds the reflexive “to stop being drunk” to the general sense “to wake”, which the linguistic atlas records across the country.^[3]

Figuratively it means to rouse a feeling or a people: Eminescu's lines have speech that „trezea furia vulgară” “roused the fury of the mob”.^[2] The reflexive also came to mean “to find oneself suddenly somewhere”: in Sadoveanu a boyar „se trezi împresurat” “found himself surrounded”.^[2] With m-am trezit Slavici's narrator says what he has done for as long as he can remember.^[2] Of drinks and food, a se trezi is to lose strength or flavour, to go flat.^[2][5][8]

Timeline

• c. 1563–1583 – the first record, in the Codicele Voronețean.^[2]
• 1643 – să trezească “that they wake” in Varlaam's Cazania.^[4][7]
• 1688 – să trezvi “he woke” in the Bucharest Bible.^[2]
• 1776 – s-au trezvit “he woke” in a Menaion.^[7]
• c. 1743 – s-au trezvit “he came to” in Neculce's chronicle.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive and reflexive) To wake someone from sleep; to wake up.^[5][1]
2. (reflexive and transitive) To come round or bring round from a reverie, a faint and the like; to sober up.^[5][2]
3. (reflexive and transitive) To become or make aware of reality, to come to understand.^[5]
4. (transitive) To arouse or awaken a feeling: a trezi interesul “to arouse interest”.^[9]
5. (reflexive) To find oneself unexpectedly with someone, somewhere or in an unforeseen situation; also to have been in a place or state for as long as one can remember.^[5]
6. (reflexive, of food, drinks, smells) To lose strength, taste or aroma; to go flat.^[5][8]

Word family

• trezire

Related words

• treaz
• trezie

Usage notes

Unde te trezești? “where do you think you are?” is said to someone who is too bold or behaves improperly.^[5]

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. trezi
3. ^ a b c d 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. treaz
4. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1276
5. ^ a b c d e f g h DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1145
6. ^ Cihac, A. de (1879), Dictionnaire d'étymologie daco-romane II: Éléments slaves, magyars, turcs, grecs-moderne et albanais, Frankfurt am Main, p. 420
7. ^ a b c d Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. trezi
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 666
9. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. trezi