umple

Forms

umple (third-person singular present umple, past participle umplut, third-person subjunctive umple), 3rd conjugation.^[1] The old form was împle (also împlea): a Slavonic–Romanian Gospel book has „Doospredzece coșure împlură” “they filled twelve baskets”.^[2][3] The Bucharest Bible of 1688 has both umple and împle, the latter more often.^[4]

Etymology

It is inherited from Latin impleō (“to fill”), formed from Latin in- + pleō.^{[5][3][6][2][7][1]} Wiktionary starts from a Vulgar Latin *implĕre of the third conjugation.^[1] As in umfla, the change of ⟨in-⟩ to ⟨un-⟩ may be older than Romanian: Ciorănescu compares Sardinian umprere and Catalan omplir.^[5]

The verb survives as Aromanian umplu and Megleno-Romanian ampl'u.^[5][8][9] Other Romance cognates are Italian empiere and French emplir.^[5][7] In the same Latin family Graur places plin and the old cumpli “to destroy”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is împle in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki of the early 16th century.^[3][11] Tiktin dates the verb to the 16th-century Codicele Voronețean (Acts 19:28).^[12]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is to make a container full; from it come “to fill a space”, “to cover a surface” and “to spread through a place”, said of smells and sounds.^[2][6] Neculce wrote that the Russians „au umplut Țara Leșască” “overran Poland”, and that a prince „l-au umplut de daruri” “showered him with gifts”.^[12] The figurative sense of a feeling filling someone (i se umple inima de bucurie) and the sense “to soil, infect” (a se umple de o boală) are also old.^[12][6]

The forms împle and umple long coexisted.^[2][4] Ciorănescu notes that the switch between conjugations (umplea and umple) is modern and still spreading.^[5] The noun umplutură “filling, stuffing” is derived from the verb.^[5]

Timeline

• early 16th century – împle and împlea in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[3][11]
• 16th century – in the Codicele Voronețean.^[12]
• 1570 – împle in Coresi's Psalter.^[13]
• 1620 – împlu “he filled” in Moxa's chronicle.^[2]
• 1660 – umple in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[14]
• 1688 – both umple and împle in the Bucharest Bible.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. (transitive) To fill a container or a cavity, sometimes to the brim: A umplut găleata cu apă. “She filled the bucket with water.”^[6][1]
2. (transitive, figurative) To overwhelm someone with a feeling: i s-a umplut inima de bucurie “his heart filled with joy”.^[6]
3. (transitive) To stuff a casing of dough, meat or vegetables with a filling.^[6][15]
4. (transitive) To spread a smell or sounds through a place: a umple satul “to tell the whole village”.^[6]
5. (transitive) To occupy or cover a surface or a room.^[6]
6. (transitive and reflexive) To soil, stain; figuratively, to infect.^[6]

Word family

• umplutură
• umplut
• umplutor
• umplere

Related words

• plin
• împlini
• Aromanian umplu
• Latin impleō

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. umple
3. ^ a b c d Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1370
4. ^ a b c Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Facerea 42:25
5. ^ 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. umple
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1170
7. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 4310
8. ^ Papahagi, Tache (1963), Dicționarul dialectului aromân, general și etimologic, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 1083
9. ^ Capidan, Theodor (1935), Meglenoromânii III: Dicționar meglenoromân, București: Academia Română, p. 13
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică
11. ^ a b 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 82:15
12. ^ 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. úmple
13. ^ 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 36:3
14. ^ 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. umple
15. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. umple