urma

Forms

urma (third-person singular present urmează, past participle urmat), first conjugation^[1] Besides urmează, the third person also has the rare form urmă, and the old subjunctive was să urme beside să urmeze.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Romanian urmă (“footprint, trace”), the noun, as a verb of the first conjugation.^{[2][3][4][5][1]} The noun's origin is uncertain.^[4] Ciorănescu takes it from Ancient Greek ὁρμή (hormḗ, “impulse”), which could also have meant “impression”, and finds the more often quoted ὀσμή (osmḗ, “smell”) harder to accept for its sounds and sense.^[4] The REW places the verb itself under Vulgar Latin *osmāre (“to scent, to track”), from the Greek word, beside Italian ormare (“to follow a track”), Old French osmer and Spanish husmear.^[6][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The verb is first recorded in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, of the early 16th century, in an old sense “to inherit”: „Blândzii urmi-vor pământul” “the meek shall inherit the earth”.^[5][2][7] A document of 1593 already uses it of what comes next: „precum mai josu va urma” “as will follow below”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense is to walk behind someone, to go after them, and by extension to go along with someone, to accompany.^[3][5] A Slavonic–Romanian lexicon of the 17th century glosses it „Mearge pe urmă, urmează” “goes on the track, follows”.^[5] Figurative senses followed: to keep to a road or a course, to obey a rule or an example, to come after someone in time and take their place.^[3][7] Miron Costin wrote that the chronicler Ureche had followed two historians, „Pre acești doi au urmat”.^[7]

Later the verb came to mean to continue something begun, to result, and to attend a school or course: Șăineanu's dictionary of 1929 gives a urma un curs de literatură “to attend a literature course”.^[8][3] With another verb it now works as a semi-auxiliary, “to be due to, to be going to”.^[3][1] The old construction with the dative, a urma cuiva, is obsolete.^[1][7]

Timeline

• c. 1500–1520 – urmi-vor “they will inherit” in the Psaltirea Hurmuzaki, the first record.^[5][2]
• 1593 – va urma “will follow” in a document.^[5]
• c. 1660–1670 – urmează “follows” in a Slavonic–Romanian lexicon.^[5][9]
• 1688 – many forms in the Bucharest Bible, among them urmează “follows” (John 8:12).^[10]
• 1929 – “to attend (a course)” in Șăineanu's dictionary.^[8]

Meanings

Verb

1. To follow someone, to walk behind them; by extension, to go along with someone, to accompany; to stand by someone in an action.^[3][2][1]
2. To keep to a route or road; to act according to an instruction, idea or principle, to comply with it.^[3][1]
3. To attend a school or course of study: a urma Facultatea de Litere “to study at the Faculty of Letters”.^[3][1]
4. To come after someone or something in time, to succeed them in an office; to come next in a ranking.^[3][1]
5. To continue something begun; to go on speaking or writing.^[3]
6. To take place, happen afterwards; to result, to follow from something.^[3]
7. As a semi-auxiliary: to have to, to be due to, to be going to: trenul urmează să sosească “the train is due to arrive”.^[3][1]

Word family

• urmare
• următor

Related words

• urmări
• urmă
• urmaș

Usage notes

The verb takes the present urmez, urmează.^[3][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k 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, 1391
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1176
4. ^ a b c 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. urmă
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. urma
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 6112
7. ^ 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. urma
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 1, 681
9. ^ 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. urmează
10. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Jn 8:12