vârf

Forms

vârf n (plural vârfuri)^[1] Old texts have vârh: „În vîrhul muntealui de Sinaie” “on the top of the mount of Sinai” (1546).^[2] The Moldavian form was vârv: the Psaltirea Scheiană has vîrvul (Psalm 71:16), and Neculce tells how Stephen the Great shot an arrow „dintr-un vîrvu de munte” “from a mountain top”.^[3][4][2] Regional variants also include fârf and vâr.^[5]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Old Church Slavonic връхъ (vrŭxŭ, “top, summit”).^{[2][5][6][7][3][1]} The Old Church Slavonic word means “top, peak” and also the crown of the head.^[8] It continues from Proto-Slavic *vьrxъ (“top, upper part”), the source of Bulgarian връх (vrăh), Serbo-Croatian vrh and Czech vrch.^[9][10][7] Vasmer relates the Slavic word to Lithuanian viršùs (“top”).^[11]

Old texts have ⟨vârh⟩, recorded about 1600, and Moldavian ⟨vârv⟩ beside ⟨vârf⟩.^[3][7] Ciorănescu also connects the verbs săvârși and covârși and the noun obârșie.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is of 1517 and MDA2's and the DLR's of 1526, both from the Romanian words in the Slavonic charters of Wallachia and Moldavia.^[3][5][2] The first Romanian texts use it for the top of a mountain, a tree or a building: în vîrhul muntealui de Sinaie (1546), and in Coresi a palm tree that stâlpări are în vârh “has branches at the top”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The main senses were there from the 16th century: the summit of a mountain, the top of a tree or a tower, and the point of a sharp object such as a spear.^[2][3] A heaped measure is plin cu vârf “full to the top”, from which come cu vârf și îndesat “abundantly, more than enough” and asta pune vârf la toate “that crowns it all”.^[6][3] MDA2 also records vârful cerului “the zenith” and old phrases for the boundary of an estate.^[5]

Later senses are figurative and technical: the vertex of an angle, the leaders of a group or organisation (vârfurile), and a moment of greatest intensity.^[6] Dimitrescu quotes ore de vârf “rush hours” and ramuri de vârf “leading branches” of industry from the press of the 1970s;^[12] întâlnire la vârf “summit meeting”, a translation of French au sommet, is quoted from 1994.^[12]

Timeline

• 1517 – first record, in a Slavonic charter.^[3]
• 1526 – the record MDA2 and the DLR give.^[5][2]
• 1546 – vîrhul muntealui de Sinaie in a Romanian text.^[2]
• c. 1573–1578 – vîrvul in the Psaltirea Scheiană (Psalm 71:16).^[4]
• 1688 – vârful in the Bucharest Bible, as in Genesis 11:4.^[13]
• 1977 – orele de vârf “rush hours” in the press.^[12]
• 1994 – întâlnire la vârf “summit meeting”.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. The top or summit of a tall object or of a hill or mountain;^[6][1] (rare) the surface of a body of water.^[6][1]
2. (figurative, in the plural) the people at the head of an organisation or a social group.^[6]
3. The tip or pointed end of a thing; the extremity of a part of the body: în vârful picioarelor “on tiptoe”.^[6][1]
4. (geometry) the vertex of an angle, a triangle or a pyramid.^[6]
5. (figurative) a moment of greatest intensity: ore de vârf “rush hours”, vârf de consum “peak demand”.^[6][12]

Word family

• vârfui
• învârfui
• vârfuț
• vârfar

Related words

• săvârși
• covârși
• obârșie
• Old Church Slavonic връхъ (vrŭxŭ)

Usage notes

Common phrases are cu vârf și îndesat “abundantly, more than enough”, plin cu vârf “full to the brim” and asta pune vârf la toate “that beats everything”.^[6][14]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ 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. vîrf
3. ^ a b c d e f g Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. vârf
4. ^ 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 71:16
5. ^ a b c d e Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1437
6. ^ 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. 1188
7. ^ 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. vîrf
8. ^ Kurz, Josef; Hauptová, Zoe (eds.) (1958–1997), Slovník jazyka staroslověnského / Lexicon linguae palaeoslovenicae, 4 vols. + supplements, Praha: Academia; digital ed. gorazd.org
9. ^ Derksen, Rick (2008), Etymological Dictionary of the Slavic Inherited Lexicon, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 4, Leiden / Boston: Brill, p. 538
10. ^ Georgiev, Vladimir I. et al. (eds.) (1971–), Bălgarski etimologičen rečnik, Sofija: Izdatelstvo na Bălgarskata akademija na naukite, p. 1, 190
11. ^ Vasmer, Max (1964–1973), Ètimologičeskij slovar' russkogo jazyka, transl. and suppl. by O. N. Trubačev, 4 vols., Moskva: Progress, p. 1, 301
12. ^ a b c d e Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. vârf
13. ^ Biblia, adecă Dumnezeiasca Scriptură a ceii vechi și a ceii noao leage, București, 1688 (ed. 1988, tricentennial edition), p. Genesis 11:4
14. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1415