umfla

Forms

a umfla (third-person singular present umflă, past participle umflat); first conjugation.^[1][2] An older variant înfla (also îmfla) stands closer to the Latin form.^[3][4][5] The 17th-century Slavonic–Romanian lexicons have both umflu and îmflu “I swell”.^[6][7]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin inflō (“to blow into, inflate”).^[3][4][2][1] The Latin verb is formed from in- and flō (“to blow”).^[1][8] The verb survives in all four branches: Aromanian umflu, Megleno-Romanian amflu and Istro-Romanian ămflu.^[3][9][10]

Its Romance cognates include Italian enfiare, Occitan enflar, French enfler and Spanish hinchar.^[3][11] Ciorănescu holds that the change of the prefix ⟨in-⟩ to ⟨un-⟩ is older than Romanian, since it also appears in Sardinian unflare and in southern Italian dialects.^[3] Wiktionary compares Catalan unflar, Romansh unflar and Sicilian unchiari.^[1] The older variant înfla keeps the vowel of the Latin prefix.^[3] Ciorănescu adds that Judeo-Spanish unflar comes from Romanian.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is the Cazania printed at Govora in 1642.^[12] The Slavonic–Romanian lexicons of the 1660s gloss umflu with Church Slavonic words for “to puff oneself up”.^[6] MDA2 dates the word only from Dosoftei's verse Psalter (1671).^[4] The 1688 Bucharest Bible uses it of the belly swelling: „să-ți umfle pântecile” “to make your belly swell” (Numbers 5:22).^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is making something swell by filling it with air or another fluid, and swelling oneself: of the body after eating, of a river in flood, of wood that soaks up water, of skin and tissue that become inflamed.^[2][4] A figurative sense “to exaggerate (prices, figures)” is colloquial.^[2][14]

A second line of colloquial senses means “to grab, seize, carry off”: a umfla pe sus “to lift up and carry off”, a umfla în spate “to swing onto one's back”.^[12][2] Tiktin starts it from a sense “to swing”, already in Dosoftei, where the smith swings his hammer up („îmflând ciocanul”).^[12] Ciorănescu lists “to grab, hold” as a sense of the verb, and Șăineanu has “to seize unexpectedly” and “to beat hard”.^[3][15] In slang it also means “to arrest”, “to steal” and “to beat”.^[16] The Aromanian verb has the senses “to swell; to fill”, “to beat” and “to carry off”.^[9]

Timeline

• 1642 – umfla in the Cazania of Govora, the first record.^[12]
• c. 1660 – umflu and umflat in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[6]
• 1671 – in Dosoftei's verse Psalter, MDA2's first record.^[4]
• 1688 – umfle and umflat in the Bucharest Bible.^[17][12]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To inflate or blow up something with elastic walls by filling it with air or another fluid: a umfla mingea “to pump up the ball”.^[2][4]
2. (reflexive, of the stomach or the body) To swell up after eating too much;^[2][4] a se umfla de râs “to burst out laughing”.^[2][4]
3. (transitive and reflexive) To fill out, to belly: vântul umflă perdelele “the wind billows the curtains”;^[2] a se umfla în pene “to puff oneself up, show off”.^[2]
4. (reflexive, of rivers) To rise above the usual level;^[2] (of liquids) to rise in boiling;^[2] (of wood) to swell with damp.^[2]
5. (reflexive, of skin, tissue or organs) To become inflamed and swollen.^[2]
6. (transitive, figurative, colloquial) To exaggerate a price, a sum or a figure.^[2][14]
7. (transitive, colloquial) To snatch, seize or carry off;^[2][12] l-au umflat pe sus “they lifted him up and carried him off”.^[2][12]

Word family

• umflăcios
• umflăciune
• umflătură

Related words

• sufla
• Aromanian umflu
• Latin inflō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1169
3. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. umfla
4. ^ 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, 1368
5. ^ Candrea, I.-A.; Adamescu, Gh. (1926–1931), Dicționarul enciclopedic ilustrat „Cartea Românească”, București: Cartea Românească, p. s.v. umfla
6. ^ 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. umflu
7. ^ 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. îmflu
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1082
10. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 12
11. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4406
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. umfla
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Numbers 5:27
14. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. umfla
15. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 677
16. ^ Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. umfla
17. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Numbers 5:21